Data Now Has A Price…

What price does data have in sport these days? If the stories on Friday are to be believed, and no reason they are not, the current price for at least some of the data is north of $200 million. That was the expected number that the sale of Chicago-based Stats Inc. fetched from a private equity firm, who has acquired the company from  Fox Sports and the Associated Press. The purchaser was  San Francisco-based private-equity firm Vista Equity Partners.

Stats, best-known for licensing data statistics and providing analysis for over 200 leagues worldwide and networks like ESPN, Fox Sports, CBS Sports and Comcast Inc.,  gained more attention among sports business types  this year when the NBA purchased its SportVU player-tracking technology to install in all of its arenas. The appeal of tracking technology partnered with wearable tech is seen as a major growth industry, an area which Stats is only one player at this point, and a costly one at that. However being first in the marketplace with a brand-name partner has its value, and that value was clearly shown this week.  Whether that pricey spend for tracking technology will drop significantly like we have seen in other areas of technology, from calculators to laptops to cameras to televisions, is a question yet to be answered.

The other major growth industry for data remains in the gaming space, a global billion dollar industry, with a small fraction of that business currently being legal in some countries outside of North America. The ability for consumer to use data for gambling in sport is commonplace in Europe, but still illegal outside of Nevada despite challenges currently going on from numerous states. Every professional sports league in North America continues to publicly deny the interest in gambling, but will still monitor the progress and the lobbying going on back and forth to change the Federal mandate. Should the law change, most feel it is not if but when, the need for accurate and detailed data from companies like Stats will explode, as leagues can then license their information through a data provider and take a cut of every transaction. While many people may think of those transactions as miniscule, the ability for a registered adult consumer to place a wager or engage with every interaction in a game, especially in a mobile environment is massive, and would make a revenue stream for leagues a billion dollar industry.

While the gaming and gambling is still off in the distance, the use of data for detailed player evaluation continues to be more and more powerful. The NBA D-League and the Arena Football League have started to track data related to performance with microchips in uniforms, and the tracking technology being used by the NBA can record much more than just actions going up and down the court. Whether or not professional player associations will allow the wearing of such chips during league games and practices is up for debate, as that data can be extremely personal when it can record things like heart rhythm and breathing capacity, but the interest for using all kinds of data to engage fans and broadcasters for content is now at a premium everywhere from America’s Cup to Formula One, and being able to provide that intimate detail of data now has at least one number affixed to it through the Stats sale this week. Now what dollar value broadcasters will put on that data for their use remains to be seen. If it can be sold to a brand, and if the consumers continue to have a need for more intimate data, the price goes up. If the market says the data is superfluous, the price stays the same or the value goes down. There is certainly an interest in more data, the question will be at what price.

Regardless of the short term outcome, the value of having propriety data and finding ways to use it continues to grow for both the recreational athlete and for the consumer and the teams at the highest level. What was once seen as an outlier in “Moneyball” is now the rule in every aspect of sport, and a venture capital firm has now set at least one price for what value data has.