Genius Sports strengthens data collection for CFL

Genius Sports Limited has teamed up with the Canadian Football League (CFL) for the launch of the 2023 season. As a result, the pair has rolled out a new data and technology partnership that will see Genius Sports’ powerful solutions leveraged to provide the CFL community with valuable and actionable insights.

To this end a new cutting-edge data collection system will be deployed – CFL LiveStats or LiveStats for short. The solution has already been used successfully in other sports with the help of Genius Sports which has been utilizing it for NCAA and FIBA games and events.

LiveStats will allow Genius Sports to collect data from every game in the CFL and use the data to power live betting solutions, augmented broadcasts, and more. The CFL will benefit from the data in other ways, too, powering the league’s CFL Pick ‘Em and CFL Fantasy solutions, along with the CFL Game Zone, offering a full 360-degree experience.

Genius Sports and the CFL will work together to ensure that live play-by-play data and post-game statistics are captured and leveraged as intended to yield commercial benefits for the league, but also help boost engagement, viewership, and fan satisfaction ratings. Any data extracted will be made available to authenticated partners of the league.

The CFL has plans to introduce more services and solutions throughout the 2023 season. There will be a historical play-by-play breakdown and public consumption stats, among others. The two organizations feel confident in the future of the partnership, with CFL Chief Operating Officer David Goldstein welcoming the opportunity to continue providing value to partners and fans. He elaborated:

"Better data will lead to everything from a better viewing experience to interactive gaming, responsible sports wagering, and more, all of which will pave the way for the future of CFL fandom."

This opportunity was similarly hailed by Genius Sports EVP of Sports and Partnerships, Matthew Cowling, who was confident that the improvement of the league’s data collection would create even more value for fans and how they interact with the games and products.

The partnership will similarly benefit broadcasts, sponsors, and more, all of whom will benefit from a trove of engagement opportunities that they can explore.

Cowling was similarly confident that the technology the CFL would now use is already tested successfully in more than 150 countries and has been delivering excellent results. The CFL only stands to benefit. Genius Sports has been strengthening its profile elsewhere in the meantime, with the company signing up partnerships with both the NFL and XFL.

Image credit: Genius Sports