Last week, Dimayor, the leading football competition organiser in Colombia and one of the largest in Latin America, announced a landmark integrity programme designed to boost protection against match-fixing and betting-related corruption. Its partner in the initiative was Genius Sports, a company which sits at the intersection of sports, betting and media with real-time data at its heart.
For Dimayor, the partnership is a step towards ensuring its competitions are monitored for suspicious betting activity, as well as strengthening its rules around insider information and structures for running investigations. For London-headquartered Genius Sports, which works with over 500 sports leagues worldwide, the move was the latest high profile partner in the Latin America region.
In recent weeks Genius Sports has announced integrity and data deals with Brazil’s National Basketball League (LNB) and Argentina’s Superliga, adding to a long list of integrity partners which includes the English Premier League, the PGA Tour and the German FA. It currently works with over 75 leagues in Latin American markets, primarily helping them create an official data product via its proprietary data capture, management and distribution technology.
But success in the LatAm region is the result of a long-term strategy. The global sports data specialist and betting software firm opened an office in Medellin back in 2016 and has been growing steadily ever since. Earlier this year it moved into a new space in the imposing 21-story One Plaza Business Centre at the heart of the city’s dynamic El Poblado district, which plays home to 300 staff – a number expected to swell to almost 400 by the end of 2020.
Localising a global business
Medellin, Colombia’s second largest city, has emerged as one of the world’s fastest growing tech and innovation hubs in recent years. Genius Sports is benefiting from the city’s exceptional talent pool and cutting-edge tech infrastructure to not only advance its products but provide a fully localised service to partners in the region. For its customers globally, the firm’s Colombian presence and operation on the local time zone ensures 24/7/365 support.
This is particularly true of the Group’s sports betting division, Betgenius. The company, which provides sportsbook platform, outsourced trading and live data services to over 170 betting operators globally, has positioned itself to take advantage of the regulatory momentum in LatAm, with new clients in the likes of Colombia and Mexico, and Peru, Brazil and Buenos Aires firmly on the agenda.
“Legal sports betting is spreading across Latin America and we want to provide our partners with the highest quality service. That’s why we continue to invest in our local capabilities” Karlo Kivi, General Manager at the company’s Medellin office told Games Magazine Brasil.
The Group’s successful expansion into Medellin has allowed it to mirror the functions within its other operation and technology hub in Tallinn, Estonia, including a 70-strong sportsbook trading unit and development team of more than 100, as well as a growing team dedicated to building AI and machine learning technology.
“What makes our story so unique is the way we’ve created local employment opportunities. We continue to hire talented local staff, including graduates from local universities, and we are committed to creating a dynamic and enjoyable working environment in which they thrive,” Kivi said.
Unlocking the value of live data
Latin America is currently amid a period of legal sports betting expansion and this is something Genius Sports Group is no stranger to. The firm’s nous at the intersection of the sports and betting industries means it regularly works with stakeholders in new markets to help create a sustainable sector which benefits and protects all parties involved.
In 2017 the Group held a sports integrity summit alongside Colombia’s gaming regulator, Colguegos, in Bogota and it did similar in partnership with GovRisk in Brazil last month, gathering members of the Economic Ministry, Superior Court of Labour and domestic sports leagues.
As new Latin American markets follow in Colombia’s – and likely Brazil’s – footsteps and regulate sports betting, live wagering will be a major contributor to revenues as it has been in other territories around the world. This is where Genius Sports Group’s strategy of turning real-time game data into in-play betting products comes to life.
By working in close partnership with sports leagues, the company is granted permission to collect data from courtside or pitchside for distribution to licensed betting operators. This makes it the fastest, most accurate and reliable source of data feeds for sportsbooks.
Local operators can now tap into a growing portfolio of official Latin American betting content – either in the form of raw data to trade games themselves, or as a fully-managed solution which gives the operator a complete live betting solution with minimal need for manual intervention.
Genius Sports Group has gone from strength-to-strength since opening its office in Medellin in 2016. And with a recent flurry of high-profile new partnerships and significant sports betting expansion still to come, its Latin American success shows no sign of slowing. Split-second data might be the centrepiece of Genius Sports Group’s business model but it’s long-term LatAm strategy has been equally accurate.
Source: GMB
