Sports Data Marketplace Overview

Sports Data Marketplace Overview • Fractionalized – Multiple sources of data for each sport. • Integrity of data varies. • Leagues are seeking greater control over real-time data. Sources of sports data • News agency employee attends sports event and gathers information • Stringer (free-lancer) for news agency provides information • Team employee provides information • League, conference, sanctioning body provides information • Third-party provider (Quokka, Stats Inc., Sportsticker). Restrictions on sports information • Major professional sports in the U.S. are moving toward controlling use of in-progress game statistics and written accounts. – NBA prohibits more than three updates per quarter of in-progress statistics or narrative accounts. – NFL limits depth of detail in real-time feeds (for example, you can’t say who ran the ball) – Major League Baseball restricts in-progress reporting; requires licensing. – Some college teams and college conference license inprogress updates to a single provider. Who controls sports data? • Landmark case in 1997 (the NBA vs. Motorola and Stats Inc.) involving the transmission of realtime text account of a game. U.S. federal appeals court ruled: • "It is the broadcast, not the underlying game, that is the subject of copyright protection.” • The facts delivered over wireless devices and online services differ from television or radio broadcasts because they “reproduce only factual information culled from the broadcasts and none of the copyrightable expression of the games.’’ Mark up what? • • • • • • • Real-time score information In-progress statistical information End of event story End of event statistics Team statistics Individual statistics League standings or rankings Sports Markup • • • • • • The leagues Olympics SportsTicker (ESPN) Stats Inc. (Fox) The AP ScreamingMedia Olympics Data • Transmission envelop follows ANPA guidelines • A field-separator delimited feed • Stream of data delivered over leased line • Uses a spec developed for `96 summer games by press agencies in conjunction with IOC. • No current plans to change feed to XML. Olympics feed file Official Results for Men's 100m Final : ATM001101 (O) 100031-07-199609h58 9011+0.5 100210695ChristieLinfordGBR9.96 100221272FredericksFrankNAM10.02 100231738MitchellDennisUSA10.04 100240247SurinBrunyCAN10.09 100251675BurrellLeroy RusselUSA10.10 100261294AdenikenOlapadeNGR10.12 100271064StewartRaymond DouglasJAM10.22 100281299EzinwaDavidsonNGR10.26 Third-party sports statistics providers • SportsTicker (ESPN) -- comma delimited feed. • The Sports Network, Southampton, Pa. No XML feed. • Elias Sports Bureau – Internal XML, no XML feed. • Stats, Inc. (Fox) – Has 13 sports in XML. Stats Inc. Baseball boxscore - - - - - - Full box score AP Baseball boxscore

I983050132 Full boxscore NO catching changes in the game for either team......... V8 Copyright 2001 The Associated Press

Devil Rays 2, Athletics 5 6/1/99 2:57 7170 43012 PhillipsHome ScreamingMedia real-time report Full report AP-HKN--Florida-NewJerse HNAAFAAA,HNAAAAAB,RT,-NOTRT APHKN--Florida-New Jersey Timed Score Sports DTD development issues • One DTD for team sports and one DTD for all individual sports? • A different DTD for each sport?