Genius Sports Group has announced a partnership with the Drone Racing League (DRL), the global, professional drone racing property, to accelerate DRL into the sports betting space.
The two technology brands will come together for a multi-year partnership to reimagine the gaming landscape, marking an initial step towards creating a first-ever, league-approved drone racing product in the United States.
Their agreement will enable licensed sportsbooks to attract a new audience of drone racing fans while providing an immersive DRL race experience.
The partnership is set to begin as the 2020 DRL Allianz World Championship Season kicks off, which features the top drone pilots in the world facing off on the DRL SIM, a drone racing video game.
DRL President Rachel Jacobson said: “Fans all over the world love the Drone Racing League – and now, through our incredible new partnership with Genius Sports, they’ll soon get to bet on it too. With our minute-long races packed with stats around speed, crashes, and competition, professional drone racing is on the fast track to be the best sport to bet on.”
Genius Sports Group CEO Mark Locke added: “The Drone Racing League is all about delivering real-time, data-driven content to highly engaged fans worldwide. Their core aims align closely with our own, making this the ideal partnership to unleash DRL’s fantastic product with our global network of sportsbooks and their customers.”
Drawing on its global leadership in advising top governing bodies including the NBA, NASCAR, and the Premier League, Genius Sports will leverage DRL’s official data to build a live betting product to be sold to legal sportsbooks in regulated territories around the world.
With exclusive access to DRL’s cutting-edge drone technology and official data across live and virtual drone races, the group aims to create a real-time gaming platform that provides up-to-the-second odds with transparency, accuracy and security, as well as a suite of wagers and prop bets.