STATS Reaches Exclusive Deal with NFL
STATS LLC announced a deal Monday with the NFL that will make the company the exclusive provider of real-time league play-by-play, scoring data and statistics in the country.
Of course, the actual scope of any such agreement seems questionable. As far as I can tell, the summer ruling in Major League Baseball’s case against CDM — upheld by the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear an appeal — seemed to confirm that all statistics (along with names and likenesses) exist in the public domain. Following that, one would have to assume that any person watching NFL games could legally compile the stats and pass them along freely.
Nevertheless, this deal clearly deepens the relationship between STATS and the NFL and means that no other companies can deliver official numbers from the games. The “multiyear” agreement also calls for broader use of STATS-exclusive content by NFL properties, STATS-provided AP content and fantasy updates on NFL.com and leaguewide use of StatPass, STATS’ proprietary web-based statistics tool.
Tags: cdm, fantasy baseball, fantasy football, fantasy sports, football, major league baseball, mlb, national football league, nfl, statpass, stats, stats inc, stats llc
