A long-term partnership between the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and Genius Sports has seen the duo commit to AI integration in the sport.
London-based Genius, one of the largest sportstech and sports data firms globally, will deliver AI-powered technology, automating official data collection, live video production and optical player tracking to FIBA-member leagues and federations.
The end goal for the partners is the creation of a ‘unified, connected solution’ to automate and synchronise live data collection and video production with player tracking using Genius’ optical systems.
FIBA Secretary General, Andreas Zagklis, said: “For almost 20 years, FIBA and Genius Sports have joined forces in developing the most innovative tools for Leagues and National Federations across all levels of basketball.
“Through this automated solution, our objective is to assist National Federations and Leagues to increase their reach and revenue and at the same time, reduce costs.
“We’re delighted to expand our partnership with Genius Sports to achieve this goal and equip the FIBA Family with first access to this cutting-edge technology in basketball.”
As mentioned by Zagklis, Genius and FIBA have been partners since 2004. Under the terms of the latest agreement, Genius has been confirmed as the official data and video capture and production partner, as well as official innovation and technology services partner from 2025, covering a 10-year term.
Genius’ services to FIBA thus far have included collection of play-by-play statistics and digital transformations, with LiveStats used to capture scoring data from over a million fixtures.
The firm’s renewal with FIBA comes as global basketball experiences a spike in viewership and engagement, with this year’s FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 recording video views of 4.6bn.
Mark Locke, CEO at Genius Sports, added: “We’re thrilled to expand our landmark partnership with FIBA, equipping Leagues and National Federations with state-of-the-art technology to transform how their fans, coaches, officials, broadcasters and sponsors interact with live data and video.
“Powered by our unique AI-driven system, Leagues and National Federations at all levels of basketball will be able to automate data and video collection and utilise the highest quality player and team tracking data.”
