Perform signs landmark deal to supply live football data to bookmakers

Digital sports content provider Perform Group has signed a landmark three-year deal with Football DataCo to become the official and exclusive supplier of live data to the sports betting industry.

It marks the first time a company has been specifically appointed by Football DataCo to collect and distribute live data feeds tailored exclusively for bookmakers.

Football DataCo is the body that markets and commercialises the official match data for the Barclays Premier League, The Football League and Scottish Professional Football League.

Perform co-CEO Simon Denyer said the deal was an “extremely exciting” development in the evolution of the company’s content offering to the bookmaker sector.

“We pride ourselves on the speed and accuracy of the data that we offer and to be the official distributor of live data feeds for the Premier League, The Football League and Scottish Professional Football League is a very dynamic development for Perform,” said Denyer. “We have a number of exciting product developments in the pipeline for both bookmakers' trading and consumer services that will further enhance their in-play offerings and we look forward to introducing them over the coming months.”

The exclusive deal (which excludes Mauritius) will run for three years and commence at the start of the upcoming 2013/14 season.

In another first for DataCo, Perform 's official data collectors, who will attend over 3,000 matches, will have exclusive access to a wi-fi connection in every English stadium to ensure the fast and reliable capture and distribution of data via bespoke handheld PDAs.

Perform’s official data collectors will have a reserved place in the press box in all English and Scottish grounds and will deliver up to 880 data points per match to bookmaker clients.

DataCo’s general manager David Folker added: “We are pleased to announce this landmark deal with Perform. We recognise the betting sector has very specific needs and speed and accuracy of data is critical to the success of their business.

“Perform has a very credible track record in providing high volumes of data in real time and has the scouting network and technical infrastructure to really deliver.”

Perform already supplies thousands of live events in data form to the global betting sector through RunningBall, which the company acquired in June 2012. The company also streams over 16,000 live video events to over forty bookmakers through its Watch&Bet and Watch&Trade services.

With its recent acquisition of Opta, the official media data collection and distribution partner for DataCo, Perform said that it is now positioned as the exclusive global supplier of official DataCo data to both the betting and media sectors.

Shares in Perform Group plc (Co. Data) (LSE:PER) have dropped 0.79 per cent to 504.00 pence per share in London this morning.