PANDA Interactive filed two separate lawsuits alleging Genius Sports and Sportradar are infringing on the patents that make it possible to stream and bet simultaneously.
SportsCastr, which does business under the name of PANDA Interactive, filed its lawsuits on Oct. 5 in the US District Court for the Easter District of Texas. The alleged infringements involve U.S. Patent Nos. 10,805,687, 11,039,218, and 10,425,697.
PANDA’s patented technology allows viewers to place a bet or purchase a product while simultaneously watching a streaming sporting event. The company uses a unique socket server architecture to synchronize the feeds.
PANDA claims that it developed its groundbreaking technology back in 2016, before the legal sports betting in the U.S. The fact that two large rivals are now offering potentially infringing products isn’t sitting well with the Las Vegas-based firm.
“We have made substantial investments in the development of our technology and cannot tolerate having our patented technology used unfairly by others and against us,” said PANDA Interactive Chairman Donald Schupak. “No one wants to see their arsenal used against them in battle.”
Last month, Genius Sports launched BetVision, which allows online betting sites to offer live video simultaneously with betting slips. The product, featuring live NFL games, is currently available at Caesars Sportsbook, BetRivers, and Fanatics Sportsbook.
Meanwhile, Sportradar has a similar stream and bet offering. In July, Sportradar agreed to provide Caesars Sportsbook with NBA optical tracking data. Earlier this month, Sportradar inked a deal granting Huddle – an odds feed provider -- access to official data for the NHL, MLB, and NBA.
More Lawsuits Likely
The sports betting sector, especially in the U.S., is competitive. So, it’s not surprising that the number of lawsuits between sports betting-related companies is growing. These lawsuits can be expensive for the parties involved and can take years to resolve.
For instance, Genius and Sportradar were embroiled in their own lawsuit. Their three-year legal tussle was over the access of real-time sports data from the English Premier League, the English Football League, and the Scottish Professional Football League.
Sportradar challenged a 2019 agreement between Genius and the Football DataCo (FDC), claiming it was anti-competitive. But per the result of a settlement, reached just last year, Genius maintained the right to provide real-time data via FDC through 2024, while Sportradar was relegated to a slower data feed.
