The rising value of data in sport: Opportunity, optimisation and dispute

Twenty years on from the advent of the “Moneyball” era in US Baseball, data is the new gold across a multitude of sports.  In football, it drives the recruitment and tactics of top Premier League sides, is credited as being part of the rise of upwardly mobile clubs like Brentford and Brighton and has been used as proof of value by elite players when negotiating contracts.

Fans of every sport pore fanatically across game, match and individual performance data.  We know who is fastest, has most stamina, can throw further, kick longer and hit hardest.  Data drives in-play betting – a huge and growing industry – it is the bedrock of sports management gaming and provides nuance to punditry and analysis during televised coverage.

But who owns the data and are players and athletes disadvantaged when it is traded and used? This is a question that has become increasingly contentious and will be explored by our expert panel from across the sport and dispute community.  The panel will consider why sport is so focused on data to drive decision making and the benefits to players and athletes if data is exploited by them.  It will explore how data has become increasingly monetised, the argument that athletes should be paid by end users and emerging concerns relating to data privacy, as well as the lingering risks of litigation.

The panel will be split into two sessions, which will be moderated by Jonathan Brown of Ankura’s Sports Advisory practice and Lorynn Demetriades (Senior Managing Director, Forensics at Ankura). 

They will be joined by panel members Jason Shardlow-Wrest (Managing Associate, Disputes & Sport at Linklaters), Anya Proops KC (Leading privacy and data protection silk from 11 King’s Bench Walk), Jordan Gardner  (Sports M&A and Investment consultant with Twenty First Group, investor and chair of various football clubs), Spencer Nolan (Independent Consultant – former head of Media Rights, M&A and Partnership at Nielsen Sport), Jeremy Steele (CEO of Analytics FC, providers of analytics and due diligence to investors, football clubs and players), Paul Joseph (IP Partner, Linklaters) and Janette Potgieter (Managing Director, Data Analytics at Ankura) for what promises  to be a lively panel with views from all sides of the debate.

This event is hosted by: