LONDON: The European Tour has followed the footsteps of the PGA Tour by entering into an agreement with IMG Arena, IMG’s leading sports betting and content hub based out of the United Kingdom.
IMG Arena will help the European Tour in the collection and distribution of its official scoring data, allowing fans to benefit from significantly enhanced statistics and insights. It will also live stream two selected Par 3 holes per week for syndication to data rights clients in selected territories. The company is developing a cutting edge, real-time, shot-by-shot data collection system which will be installed at all European Tour events, with these new insights set to be available to fans via the tournament’s platforms and global broadcasters.
A fully trained scoring team will use leading GPS technology, connectivity systems and greenside cameras to collect data from every shot in the competition. Successful trials have been completed and further testing will take place across a host of events during 2019, with a view to the system being fully operational for the 2020 season.
The agreement includes IMG Arena distributing and licensing the European Tour’s official scoring data on an exclusive basis to worldwide media organisations and international regulated sports betting and gaming markets in a significant long-term arrangement. It will also work closely with the European Tour’s Integrity Unit, which was launched in 2018 and its partners Genius Sports as a key component of an enhanced integrity programme to protect the Tour from corruption relating to sports betting.
European Tour chief content officer Rufus Hack said: “This partnership with IMG ARENA will provide an enhanced statistical offering from our tournaments through real-time, shot-by-shot data. “It will help us to grow our fan base and increase engagement through improved data and insights for fans across all our platforms. Licensing the data for regulated sports betting markets will allow fans around the world the opportunity to engage with our product in a different way.
“IMG Arena will work closely with our robust integrity programme, and our investment in this area will combine the latest thinking and world-class technology to both disseminate official scoring data to betting markets and protect our tournaments from the threat corruption.”
IMG Arena SVP and head of commercial operations Max Wright added: “More than a year in the making, this partnership will deliver one of the most sophisticated sports data products ever created. Our state-of-the-art, live scoring capture system will deliver a wealth of data and power a range of exciting new live betting markets.
“There is a huge opportunity for golf to become a global leader in sports betting. IMG Arena is at the forefront of the efforts to deliver this, with the European Tour a significant and complementary addition to our portfolio.”
IMG Arena processes official data for more than 45,000 sporting events per year. Among these data services are its tennis feeds, incorporating the ATP, WTA and ATP Challenger Tours, as well as three of the Grand Slams: Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open. Although it was officially launched in November 2018, the business delivered more than 70 million hours of content and 39 million unique views in 2017.
IMG’s expertise in sports betting dates back to 2012, when it began developing a client and partner base of tier one betting operators and rights holders. Since then, IMG has created partnerships with more than 40 leading federations, including the ATP, MLS, Serie A, NHL and the EuroLeague.
