Genius Sports at Needham Conference: Betting Tech Drives Growth

On Friday, 09 May 2025, Genius Sports (NYSE:GENI) participated in the 20th Annual Needham Technology, Media & Consumer 1x1 Conference. The company presented a robust strategic outlook, showcasing significant revenue growth and technological advancements. While the focus was on strong financial performance and innovative product offerings, challenges in media revenue growth were noted.

Key Takeaways

• Genius Sports reported a 20% increase in revenue and tripled its EBITDA in Q1 2025.
• Betting technology revenue rose by 44%, driven by rate increases and new products.
• The company reaffirmed its full-year guidance of 21% revenue growth and 40% EBITDA growth.
• Operational highlights included a new NCAA deal and advancements in offsides technology for the Premier League.
• The company emphasized its strategy on M&A, targeting high-quality sports tech companies that are margin and cash accretive.

Financial Results

• Revenue grew by 20% year-over-year in Q1 2025.
• EBITDA saw a threefold increase compared to the previous year.
• Incremental margins reached 53% in Q1 2025.
• Betting revenue climbed by 44% year-over-year, with significant growth in both US and European markets.
• Revenue from revenue share contracts increased by 65%, while minimum guarantees saw a 36% rise.

Operational Updates

• A new deal with the NCAA was announced, expected to contribute positively to the company’s performance.
• Genius Sports advanced its semi-automated offsides technology for the Premier League.
• The BetVision product was highlighted, with 76% of its handle being in-play.
• BetVision expanded to soccer leagues like French Liga 1 and Brazilian Serie A, with basketball expected to follow.
• The company launched integrated augmented advertising for the Clippers on ClipperVision.

Future Outlook

• The company reaffirmed its guidance for 21% revenue growth and 40% EBITDA growth for the year.
• Media revenues are projected to grow in the low double digits for the full year.
• Genius Sports plans to focus on M&A, particularly in subscale, high-quality sports tech companies.
• Expansion of BetVision to new sports and leagues is a key strategic focus.

Q&A Highlights

• The impact of sports betting win rates on revenue was discussed, with Genius Sports expressing confidence in its diversified revenue streams.
• In-play betting was identified as a major growth driver, with potential US market penetration increasing significantly.
• The company highlighted its unique advertising opportunities through FanHub, leveraging first-party audience data for better ad spend returns.
• Capital allocation will prioritize M&A deals that are both margin and cash accretive.

For further details, readers are encouraged to refer to the full transcript of the conference call.

Full transcript - 20th Annual Needham Technology, Media & Consumer 1x1 Conference:

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: Great. Hello, everyone. Thanks for joining us today, at the the Needham and conference. I’m Bernie Materne, one of Internet analysts here at Needham and Company. And my pleasure to once again welcome Genius Sports.

We have Nick Taylor, CFO. Nick, thanks for joining us.

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: Yeah. No worries, buddy. It’s nice to see you again.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: Yeah. Long time no talk. Right? Always. Yeah.

And I guess on that point, you know, one of the views of this conference is that it is coming off so quickly after one q results. I mean, we even had draft teams reporting, you know, last night or this morning. We’d love to just get, you know, your your key highlights from from the results and and guidance, and, you know, we’ll certainly dive in, but I think that’d be a great starting point.

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: Yeah. Yeah. Of course. And and thanks, Bernie, for for giving us the I know we’ve had a couple of days of virtual conference. It’s been great as always, so it’s so much appreciated for for giving us this time.

Yeah. We announced our q one results on Tuesday, think it was. So, you know, good set of results, but it’s I I guess is what I’d say. You know, 20% revenue growth, EBITDA, you know, three x growth in EBITDA, strong incremental margins of 53%. I think, you know, you mentioned other people’s, results this week.

I think a good one to call out is, you know, betting revenue was up 44% year on year despite some of the hold, headwinds that we’ve seen in March, and I’m I’m sure we might touch on that in the next forty minutes. And we reaffirmed guidance, Bernie, as well, you know, which is 21% revenue growth, 40% EBITDA growth, and a 20% margin. So, you know, strong message in this environment. We talked a little bit as well about, some key sort of commercial and and more strategic points on the call in new NCAA deal that we announced recently, That vision for soccer, which is a key a building block and and semi automated offsides for the Premier League as well, which is something we get a little bit more color around. So so pleasure to talk about this week.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: Yeah. No. That’s great. Maybe one of the things that that, you know, Brandon and team adds to the slide deck this quarter, I think it was new, but just that flywheel and showing, you know, connecting you mentioned that off-site technology, but connecting the off-site technology to BetVision to Fanhub. Can you just talk about that flywheel?

And and I think that’d be a nice starting place, you know, for this conversation.

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: Yeah. Cool. I’d love to take credit for it, buddy, but it wasn’t my piece of work. So but, yeah, I mean, it it it’s really talking all about how the sort of sports and betting and media advertising really converges and and and and that really our technology is at the center of that convergence. So if we start at sort of leagues and sports federations, you know, they’re using our technology to solve their issues, to solve their problems.

Semi automated off-site is a great example of that. That’s allowing us to install our Genius IQ technology in their stadiums. And Genius IQ, as you know, is is really one of only few feasible products, certainly the only feasible product for semi automated off-site because it relies on computer vision and AI. Having that technology in the stadium, that allows us to capture this next generational data. It’s that data that then powers our, the new types of sports betting or new viewer experiences, something like BetVision, for example, that you’ve heard us talk about, or the the old telecast of live sports that that, again, you’ve heard you’ve heard us talk about.

You know, that’s a really powerful tool, that BetVision tool, for example, that’s driving millions of captured capturing eyeballs to live sport. That in turn is of huge interest to advertisers, and that’s where Funhub then comes in because, really, that’s the link for those advertisers into into that live sport. Those advertisers themselves, of course, are probably official sponsors of the leagues and federations that allows them to engage their own audiences. It gets it allows those brands to have more value of those sponsorships, and therefore, the value ultimately feeds back into the leagues and sports federations and and round we go again, Bernie. So you can see how we we’re not just a you know, sometimes people think that, you know, we’re just a middleman between leagues and sports books, but you can see we’re actually a sort of, I guess, a scale sports software business that touches each part of those ecosystem.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: Yeah. Like a vertical software provider for, like, the sports industry is a

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: That’s right.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: Reasonable way of thinking about it. Yeah. Alright. Well, you mentioned one of the key highlights of the quarter was was betting technology revenue growing 44% in the quarter. I believe it was driven by rate increases with existing customers.

Was that primarily The U I know US sports books was a positive impact there, but was it primarily US sports books or was there, you know, other other renewals outside The US that impacted that number as well?

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: Yeah. I mean, there’s there’s lots of tailwinds, Bernie. And, you and everyone else has heard us talk about that. Yep. Absolutely.

Prices is one of being one of those tailwinds in in in the start of, yeah, the q four twenty four and and and and q one twenty five. And you’re right. We renegotiated a lot of the sports book deals, predominantly in The US, in around the fall, and you can see the benefit of that that’s coming through in in in q four and q one. But you’ve got all those other tailwinds, you know, the move to in place sports betting, the hold, additional products that were serving to sports books. And it’s worth saying that although, you know, The US obviously had significantly strong growth, Europe also grow, you know, significantly in the in the year.

I think our our total betting in Europe was north of 20% as well. So so it’s, you it’s a real global play here, Bernie.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: Right. And as we’re, you know, fine tuning our models for the rest of this year and even to ’26, any renewals that we should be that we should be aware of or contemplating as we’re thinking about the growth in betting technology revenue?

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: Yeah. I mean, we we said we said last year, you know, renewals of sports book contracts is is our day to day bread and butter, really, but it would do that all the time. The issue last year was was most of the big US sports book deals kind of all happened at the same time. So we’ve staggered those. Now there aren’t any significant US sports book deals this year, but, you know, some of them will be two year deals, so we’ll start looking at those again for next year.

But there are some one or two European sports book deals, but nothing fundamentally. There’s nothing that’s that that is existential in terms of our numbers. It’s day job stuff, and and and, you know, we’re confident. And indeed, we’ve we’ve shown track record not just the last two years, but but further back about how we’re able to monetize those deals.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: Right. Okay. And then another interesting stat that you guys provided this quarter was just breaking down that betting tech revenue. So saying that revenue from rev share contracts grew 65% in the quarter, and then revenue from minimum guarantees grew 36% in the quarter, both year on year numbers. So one just dive in to make sure, like, I was understanding that right.

So if we’re thinking about the rev share contracts, is that basically US growth, US rate increases, and then Brazil as well? Is that, like, kind of, like, the the right three moving pieces, and if any way, like, size those three buckets in terms of contribution?

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: It’s always difficult to size, but, yeah, you’re thinking about the right way, Bernie. So that so so the majority of that is is US. What what we’ve done in the contracts for for 20 the the the latest set of contracts that we’ve done, You almost think of them as a hybrid between kind of rev share and contract minimums because it’s absolutely true that, you know, we will continue to grow ups, get upsides, GGR growth, as new states come on board, as hold improves, in play in play mix, continues to improve. You know, we gained from that, but we’ve protected some of the downside. And and you can see that really over the last couple of quarters.

As I said at the start of the call, you know, sometimes the hold wasn’t great in q four. We’ve we’re seeing that in March 2025 as well from some of the sports books. You can see that that hasn’t really impacted our numbers. You know, I you know, I get the question quite a lot about, you know, do I stay what what what keeps me awake at night? What what do I stay awake thinking about sports results?

I I don’t. You know, we’re we’re we’re so nicely diversified both from a geographical perspective, from a contract perspective, you know, any particular result that doesn’t impact our numbers materially.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: Okay. And then if we’re thinking about that rev share piece, you know, on a normalized basis, how fast should we be thinking about that that growing? I know you, you know, you just said that renewals are kind of constantly happening. So maybe thinking about, you know, market growth and and what you know, how much pricing power you guys have in the market.

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: Yeah. Brandon, who who I know you know, our investor relations manager always calls it, you know, sort of GGR plus kind of model is what we should be looking at. You know, we we should be growing at GGR, but then ahead of that. Now at the moment, you know, you’re right. Price is obviously, you know, a a proportion of that over the last two quarters, and that should always be part of what we’re trying to do.

But is also about new products. This is also about in play mix. It’s all about all the other tailwinds, that that our anticipated hold and so on and so forth. So we always think about it of of looking to be sort of, as I say, GTR plus.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: Okay. You should you should get that trademarked. And then, I mean, this is when, you know, the obligatory question in terms of the macro and and consumer, what you’re seeing, but just because you because you’re talking about variable and rev share. Just anything that there’s, you know, anything that you’re seeing from the consumer right now or hearing from your sports with partners that’s telling you there’s, you know, how you think OSB is gonna hold up here over the next couple months.

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: Yeah. I mean, it’s pretty pretty resilient, I I I would say, Bernie, is the answer. You know, as you know, you know, the the their betting is just an entertainment form alongside sports. You know, sports not going anywhere in any market. There are a lot of data points from previous downturns.

If I could go back to I’m old enough to remember 02/2009, ’2 thousand and ’10. You you’ve got UK, Australia, you know, more mature markets. They you know, online sports betting grew significantly even in those downturns. So so we’re not seeing and don’t expect to see any significant, consumer pressures in this area.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: Okay. Understood. And then as we think about that minimum guarantee bucket, you know, growing 36% year over year, I mean, I’m assuming there’s some benefit there from you from just more dollars being in that bucket from, like, a US perspective than than last year, but just kind of any other puts and takes we should be thinking about it and then how that bucket should be growing in a normalized environment.

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: Yeah. That’s right. I think I just described as sort of The US as sort of hybrid bucket. So so all the tailwinds that I’ve described in the rev share, most of them are also applicable to the to the minimum minimum as well. And as I say, obviously, it’s not just US.

It’s Europe as well and and, you know, the regular cadence of of renegotiating deals of upside in any deals, whether that’s more events or more product, all feed into that into that growth of that number.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: Okay. Understood. And just, lastly, I’d be hammering you on the betting tech numbers. Just, you know, 44% growth in one q. I mean, at least in our model looking at, we have that as a high watermark for the year in terms of year over year growth.

But any other any puts and takes we we should be thinking of as, you know, obviously coming out of earnings, everyone’s really focused on the model right now.

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: Yeah. I mean, look. We’re we’re very, very happy with 4044% growth. And indeed, actually, if perhaps the hold have been a little better, you might have been you know, you’d have seen you’d have seen higher than that in in certainly for March as well. I mean, the great thing to me, Ben, is is is that is a increasingly of a predictable area.

You know, we’ve got really good visibility. We’ve been relatively conservative about our our, forecasts around hold, in play mix, you know, GGR growth for the rest of the year, there’s you know, if they come in better, there’s definitely upside. You know? Although, as I say, we’ve taken some of the we’ve derisked some of it by contractual positions, it is still absolutely true that good results for sports books is good results for Genius and and move to in play acceleration of in play mix in in betting is also good news for Genius.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: Right. And so I want to make sure we touched on that in play penetration. You know, DraftKings said this morning that now over 50% of their handle is in play. I mean, obviously, more mature markets in Europe are thought to be 80%. You know, if if we think about, you know, maybe a way of asking the question, take it any way you want.

Just if we think about the 29% growth in betting technology last year, how much of that was driven by a tailwind of of in play betting or just trying to size that kind of penetration in play betting, how it’s factoring in that segment.

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: It’s absolutely an important part of that, but that growth, Bernie, completely. You know, we’ve seen really it kind of move from 25 to 30%. It’s our kind of broad estimates in in what in what we can see. And, you know, I’ve I’ve not had a chance to listen to the DraftKings call yet this morning, but, you know, one of the key things we obviously see is is the sports books developing better product and merchandising it more. Yeah.

BetVision is is genius products. They’re a really good example of that. You know, we gave the stats, I think, that 76 of all BetVision handlers in play. You know, we always said it was going to be a product evolution, and and I think we’ve really kind of turned the corner on that now. Clearly, you’re hearing that a lot more from the sports books operators.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: Understood. And so what like, if if you mentioned 25 to 30% US in play betting penetration. In your view, what’s the larger obstacle from it getting to, you know, sixty, seventy, 80 percent over the the long term?

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: It’s just time, Bernie. It’s it’s time and customer familiarity is what I’d say is, you know, this is a natural evolution. You know, we were saying this four years ago. We’ve seen it in every mature market. It’s playing out exactly how how we expect

The timings are not you know, the timing of how this happens isn’t always linear, you know, but but, you know, we said it was going to be a product, and and we’ve seen that. And as I BetVision, you know, is creating it a a a, you know, unique interface really with how people are watching, engaging in that sort of sort of fully immersive betting experience. And that’s a really good example. We’re the best example out there of of that driving in play sports betting.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: Right. Right. Understood. And so last thing on in play betting, as we usually, the way I think about it at least is that in play betting just has a higher take rate. So I know under the old contracts, was kinda like 2% versus 5%.

It’s probably both of those are probably higher now. But can you just talk about are you providing additional products as well that so then, therefore, not only you’re benefiting from the higher take rate just from the the from the data you’re providing, but then also the higher take rate from actual services as well too?

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: Yeah. Yeah. Of course. I mean, you you’re right. We you know, the new contracts are structured in a slightly different way, but it’s absolutely true, you know, sort of three x on an in play sports bet revenue for Genius to a to a pre play sports bet.

That that that’s broadly still true, Bernie, for for all the obvious reasons as you know, given the fact that our services are are absolutely fundamental to power in play sports betting. And, yeah, absolutely, it’s, you know, product. You know, we’re very focused on on providing new products. And, you know, we talked about it a minute ago. BetVision is really the the sort of the key product for that, and and it’s been live at NFL for for a couple of years.

The functionality of that has changed dramatically over the over the last years and will continue to do so. And we announced on, the earnings call, you know, we we now launched that for soccer. You know, in the end, NFL is only 276 games. You know, soccer will be will be thousands of games, and and basketball is coming next. And these are mass participation sports on a global betting basis, and and and and you’re gonna start seeing that really penetrate the global market.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: And so that’s a great transition to the next part. I wanted to make sure we definitely touched on BetVision. So so right now, we know BetVision’s NFL. And then, I guess, what are the major soccer leagues that you guys have it for? And then how should we think about and then and then yeah.

And how should we think about what leagues are gonna have it for basketball as well?

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: Yeah. Of course. So you’re right. NFL is clearly our our flagship product that we’ve been we’ve been doing for for, a couple of years now. You know, I think it’s in all major US sports books.

I think it’s streamed across thirteen thirteen countries, and we’ve seen some real success over the last years. You know? I think we’ve we’ve more than doubled the unique streamers year on year. You’re using it, and and and, you know, we’re gonna be slightly careful about, you know, many we’re allowed to say how much we’re allowed to say, but we can tell you that it’s millions of eyeballs is is what we’re looking at here. And I said earlier, I think it was 76% of of handlers in play.

So so that that that that’s when that’s clearly what we’re we’re we’re looking to replicate, elsewhere. You know, from a soccer side, you mentioned, you know, you’re looking at French Liga one, which is essentially the equivalent for in in France in the Premier League. You’re looking at the Brazilian Serie A. You’re looking at Dutch league, Turkish leagues, UEFA Champions League qualifiers, and and and lots more. So you’ve got a lot coming down down the track.

And as you say, basketball, particularly through our FIBO relationship, which is this sort of global umbrella relationship with with basketball is clearly gonna be driving the the next wave, which we’re hoping to to launch in the next quarter.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: Got it. And then remind us just how BetVision’s monetized. I believe it’s on a take rate basis, but just wanna make sure I understood, you know, in terms I I think that’s how we always learn that the NFL is a higher take rate for for BetVision bets. But is it is it is that still the right way of thinking about giving contract renewals and then how is it monetized in Europe?

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: Yeah. I mean, it’s slightly paid from contract to contract, but sort of how to talk about generalizations, Bernie. Mean, first of we actually get paid and sometimes that’s paid on a technology basis. You know, we get paid a fee for providing that technology, which is okay, but that’s not the interesting stuff. The interesting stuff, as I say, is is what it’s driving is in place sports betting, and that in place sports betting, as I say, we’re taking a broadly a sort of three x taken revenue from a from an in play bet than we are a pre play bet.

So, you know, that’s really what’s got that sort of I guess the phrase is sort of that compounding effect of of BetVision. The other thing that’s worth worth touching on, but, of course, is going forward. You know, because it’s millions of eyeballs on BetVision, there’s there’s a the next logical step is monetizing that through through advertising, you know, with those with those eyeballs, and you got that automatically becomes a very attractive destination for brands. It’s a highly engaged audience. And as I say, there’s nobody more engaged than the guy who’s got $10 on the on on on the next touchdown or whatever it might be.

This is a highly engaged audience, you know, who are watching and interacting and and and betting, for example, with the NFL.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: Right. And so certainly wanna make sure we touch on that, but just last two on BetVision. And and you touched on this when when we when we hit the flywheel, but I just wanna make sure we hit that point home. You know, when you when when you install the BetVision technology in the stadiums, you know, how does that then provide other technology solutions? Like, I I think Offsides is probably a good example of this, but, you know, basically, like, using BetVision to to get your tentacles in and then, like, how can you, you know, make sure you’re that much more important to the leads?

Like, is that the right way of thinking about it?

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: That that that’s exactly the way to think about it, but you’re right. I’m going gonna go back to my flight. Well, that this is the beauty of Genius IQ, really, is it is it’s that that it’s that same technology that’s powering BetFish and is also powering the broadcast augmentation stuff that we’re doing. It’s also gonna be powering those dynamic advertising. Semi Omaze of Sight, as you say, Bernie, is a great example of that.

Player tracking, coaching tools, studio performance, all of those other tools are all driven from that same Genius IQ technology.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: Right. Okay. And then maybe this is touching on and I and I think it’s smaller, but I I think this is the first quarter you guys mentioned the three d immersive analysis technology. Is that is that a media product, or is that for the teams? Just trying to get the sense in terms of who’s using that.

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: Yeah. Well, do you know what, Baze? It’s it’s a really good, example of what we just talked about in terms of that Genius IQ. It’s just a it’s another user case of the Genius IQ. That specific one, it’s a it’s a tool for coaches, soccer coaches, and and analysts.

I mean, what it what it is is using a using the I AI technology in the grounds. It yeah. You’ve heard us talk about this before. It’s we’re we’re capturing hundreds of thousands of data points on a on a player’s body, you know, hundred frames a second or thousand frames a second, something some astronomical number. And and what that’s really doing, therefore, is is enable us to sort of fully digit digitally recreate the game in real time that then becomes fully customizable.

So so that particular product is customizable as, say, for coaches and teams. So, you know, in real time, they can they can instantly look at a a pass from the player’s angle or look at a save from the goalkeeper’s angle or look at it from an overhead angle. And that’s completely sort of kind of transforms the way, I guess, coaches and and their teams and their analysts are are are monitoring the game in real time. And it’s just a a really good user user case of that same Genius IQ that’s powering all of this tech.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: Right. So given the coach the confidence whether he can actually yell at the player now if they missed him or if he or if he couldn’t see him.

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. That was something quite rough, buddy.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: But so and and I remember, you know, we we in New York City, there is that tech demo with the with the Spectrum team. I don’t know. What? Two or three years time kinda blends together now, I guess. But is that that technology coming to life?

Because I remember when we spoke about it originally, it was certainly gonna be more consumer facing, and it could be even, the interface that that is on that that how consumers are engaging in sports betting. Like, is this kind of step one in that actually becoming a reality and how the consumer sees it?

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: Well well well, exactly. And I would say it is a reality, Bernie. So so you’re right. It’s the sort of evolution of that product that that product. And and, you know, Genius IQ is all of these user cases.

So it’s the same user case in a b to b space for semi automated sites. So that’s exactly the same technology that is capturing in real time this significant issue that that’s that that we’re solving for the Premier League, it’s, you know, we’re a couple of couple of weekends in, and it’s, you know, been a been a very successful launch. That example that I’ve just given you is a is an example of it, again, from a coach’s perspective rather than a rather than a leads and federation’s perspective. But it’s the same technology that, for example, you know, we have, you know, we just launched recently a a our first integrated, augmented advertising, for the clippers on clipper vision with Spectrum Mobile, you know, one of the biggest media buyers, you know, in The US. That that that is using exactly the same technology that that you’re seeing as a consumer now, not just as a coach or as a as a referee or or whatever the user case might be.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: Okay. And so while we’re I mean, I have a bunch of questions on cost, but I think, you know, as we’re talking about advertising, it’s probably worthwhile to just, you know, click ahead. And and certainly, Fanhub is, you know, I would say over the past six months, it’s definitely garnered a lot more investor attention, and we’ve been feeling a lot more questions. So Yeah. Maybe just to start, if we can talk about the opportunity more broadly, how you see it with Fanhub, you know, what’s your what’s Mark’s vision in in this rollout and and what it can ultimately look like.

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: Yeah. And and and look, buddy, we it will you know, you you spend the market. You’ve heard Mark talk about it. You know, it is the thing that that probably most excites us. That’s not to get away from 44% growth in the betting business.

It’s really important part of our business, and particularly in the current market, that that that’s very exciting for us as well. But, yeah, let’s let’s just concentrate on the Funhub piece. So I guess there’s a couple of kind of macro dynamics going on, Bernie, at the moment that that you I’m sure you’re aware of, you know, with ad dollars shifting from linear to digital, sports consumption also shifting the the way, you know, the way my kids are watching sport now is different to the way I watch sport. Goodness knows. Thirty, forty years ago, whatever whatever it was, it’s now short form content, alternative experiences, you know, data visualization.

Yeah. And and the key thing now is sport is one of the few things that anyone ever watches live now. So so for advertisers to be associated with that, you know, that that points of key emotion in real time for sport is absolutely fundamental to them. And that’s really what Funhub is all about. So Funhub is really is the platform, a self serve platform that’s offering advertisers that opportunity to be part of those moments of key emotion.

Now now why Genius? Well, you know, I I think Mark, a couple of, two earning calls ago talked exactly this. As you know, what gives us the right, you know, to to to do this? And really, it comes down to our I I guess what says our unique understanding of what’s happening in the game real time. You know, that that that’s really what we do.

It’s what what we spent the last twenty years doing. It’s our first party audience data that we have is also unique. It’s our experience about how those audiences are interacting with the moments in the game. And, of course, then, you know, we we’ve got a proven track record of of of campaign management. If you layer on all of those, there’s no other ad tech platform that has that sort of unique capability that’s exclusive to sports, and that that’s critical.

That’s what we’re going after, you know, that exclusives to sport. So really for any brand, whether it’s a, you know, sports book or or or consumer brand or however it might be, you know, any brand that wants to reach that sports fan, you know, is going to get a higher return on their ad spend through Genius than than than through a than through a generalist platform. That that’s kind of the the the essence of Fanhub, really.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: And just to make sure and so, like, I know I know Genius has a partnership or I’m not sure what you call partnership or agreement with Twitter or X. And so is the thinking that if I’m an advertiser and I wanna buy impressions on X, I don’t know necessarily if it’s, you know, the new pope being named or the Knicks being the Celtics. But if I’m, you know, Budweiser, like, I’m probably wanna be, you know, the I don’t know why I’m using Knicks being the Celtics. It ripped my heart out. But but, like, I wanna be associated with the sports stuff and not maybe other stuff.

Yeah.

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: I mean, that’s where our expertise It’s in sports. It’s what we’ve been doing twenty years. It’s what we’re doing here. BetVision is a great example. It gives us a really strong view of how people are interacting with sport, that first party data.

And, ultimately, that first party inventory that we’re creating, you know, so we can you know, right now, you know, we get inventory from websites, you know, ad exchanges. You know, we obviously can optimize that bidding for inventory based on our first party data and real time data access. But we also have access to inventory via the properties that we, to our partners, for example, you know, NFM, NFL app, NFL.com. But, really, the the the most interesting thing for us to say is that dynamic inventory that we that we ourselves creating through GenieSight Q. And you’ve seen some of those examples through through board master augmentations.

I just I just name checked one where, you know, we were creating on on on ClipperVision. We created that inventory, which we then sold to Spectrum Mobile, you know, and that was player tracking, you know, mini maps, three point trackers, all Spectrum sponsored. So, now if you put that together with what we just talked about in terms of BetVision, that which is a natural next time. Again, if you go back to that flywheel, you know, with with BetVision and you’re talking about tens of thousands of games of sport, you suddenly got a really interesting and an exciting ad tech platform that has access to to unique inventory.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: And so do you need to for because I I understand there’s, like, the unique part of the stuff that you’re buying off exchanges. Do you need to strike a bunch of partnerships with different, like, social networks to get access to that inventory, or is it can you buy it through third parties? And then, I guess, not, then why is it so important to have that partnership with x? Why why are they different?

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: X aren’t aren’t aren’t at all. You know, the reason why people are using are really using Genius is because we understand the sports fan, just those sports fans. We understand that real time events in a game. You know? We’re bringing that that that fan preference, that interaction, that knowledge that we’ve had, the relationships we we have.

You know, we can buy ads on ad exchanges, and we currently do on a managed service basis for sports books. That’s essentially what what we’re doing. Where where the rubber hits the road really here, Bernie, is to say, it is is not only do we bring all that expertise around that those key points of emotion, but it’s about then creating our own inventory. And as I said, that that that spectrum is a is a really good example of that where we’re creating our own inventory, and you’ve seen that in others. I mean, the the the basketball examples and in some of the European basketball leagues where you’re not if you’re an advertiser, you’re a brand, you’re not gonna be able to get that, inventory anywhere else.

You you you can only get that through Genius, only get that through Genius IQ, and only get that through the Fanhub brand. And then again, you’re back into that flywheel that we started off.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: So over time, like, we’re talking about Fanhub, you know, five, ten years out, is that vision and that unique inventory gonna be the lion’s share of the inventory, do you think? Or or or maybe it’s the most important is probably the bigger point.

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: I look. I I I I think it’s a vital part. It’s it’s it’s a vital part of Brick. It’s why BetVision, when we talked about it, announced it’s a key strategic element. It’s a key strategic for a number of reasons.

It’s it’s helping sports books that dwell time, you know, that that the one of those key metrics around people in The US. It’s driving it to in place sports betting, which is a great consequence. And, that’s helping driving that 44% in betting, which is a very important part. But, ultimately, what that bet vision is going to create is that inventory, that key inventory, which, of course, as you know then, Bernie, is massive margins as well in terms of profitability margins because you’re not gonna get that anywhere else. And and the key thing about this for for us is because it’s all done via AI and computer vision, this is done at, you know, the key points of emotion.

This isn’t just advertising in a game at, you know, very fast. It can be, but it’s also at the point of the three points. It’s the point of the touchdown. It’s the point of the soccer goal. You know, we’re live right now with, in the Premier League with with with certain broadcasters where certain streamers where a brand can associate themselves at that point of the goal.

And that’s critical because, you know, I can say this because I’m a Brit. You know, you can watch a Premier League game in for eighty nine minutes, fifty three seconds, not very much happens. But if you if you’re if you’re associating yourself with that key point of high emotion for a brand, that’s an nirvana for them. And that’s only gonna be gotten through through that through the Genius IQ technology.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: And so that’s already happening? Is that not right now?

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: Absolutely. That’s locked now.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: And so is there any should we expect that for this upcoming NFL season?

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: Look. I I mean, there’s all sorts of, things to work through and exciting things to announce in due course and so on and so forth. What I guess the key point to understand, but is this isn’t on my chief product officer’s PowerPoint that we’ll get round to. This is technology that exists today and indeed, you know, as I say, a great example of that is is the Spectrum deal. You know, one of the biggest, major major spending brands in The US has been doing that today on on on ClipperVision.

So, again, this isn’t this isn’t a a pipe dream. This is this is real.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: Okay. Understood. And then maybe just lastly on this, just what are the key checkpoints, that that you wanna hit this year for for Fanhub? And so, you know, we can grade your homework, so to speak.

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: I think there’s a couple of things. Now first of all, financially, I think it’s important to understand that actually we haven’t built a huge amount of, of numbers into the 2025 guide. So so in order to hit our 06/20 guide, yeah, I’m expecting media revenues to be, you know, double digit, low double digit, low teens digit growth for the for for for the whole year and to be in growth in q two, q ’3, and q four. You know, there’s been some noise around q one. Yeah.

That was entirely expected. You know, q one, you know, prior year revenue was up 63. That’s a little bit of an anomaly in truth. If we cast our minds back to those days, you know, Florida had just just legalized and there was a lot of media spend going in in Florida, which was a sort of one off effect. Don’t get me wrong.

Great. Then it happened, Bernie.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: Right. But it

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: was always gonna cause a a problem from a comp perspective. Actually, if you look over on a two year basis, you know, I think we’ve grown 19% across those two years, a compound 10%. So that’s, you know, decent growth rate across that q one. Expecting that to continue to grow. But the key point is it’s fine, but I haven’t bought built an awful lot of revenue.

It’s sort of low single digit millions in that. So so, you know, our job and and Mark Lock and the team are, you know, understandably, you know, your market’s pushing us to accelerate that that revenue as quick as we can. And, you know, we had a we had an event last night, you know, a new front event in New York last night where we presented in front of, think it was 250 brands, came to understand, you know, what our products are looking like. So, yeah, the conversations are are deep and and and meaningful on this right now. So revenue, hitting our numbers clearly, but as I say, it’s not a significant part of those numbers for twenty twenty, twenty five.

The other key thing, but as you keep seeing that cadence of announcements that that we’re doing, whether that’s with agencies or whether that’s with brands that that that we do from time to time, know, we should continue to see those landing throughout 2025.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: Okay. That’s great to hear. About five minutes left, so I guess it’s, you know, decent enough time to talk about margins. Just, you know, league rights costs, we get a lot of questions on, especially in terms of, like, you know you mentioned before, like, this genius is the middleman or they get squeezed by the leagues or not. I think it’s pretty encouraging that the guidance that you set forth for the sec I think implies the second half, it’s still nice incremental margins despite stepping up with EPL.

So maybe if may like, how we should think about league renewals this year, but in particular, like, is there anything special about that renewal with with Football Data Co that is would be out of the ordinary? And, really, we’re trying to get the read across for what the NFL could step up at in a couple years, but know there’s a lot there. So I think you’re all Yeah.

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: No. No. I mean, of course. I mean, what I would say actually, it just sort of tying it to the previous conversations, is all that conversations that we just talked about, all of the Genius IQ, user cases are all pretty much right agnostic. So so, you know, that that’s a key thing going forward is, you know, they’re at a very high margin and don’t require any more additional rights.

That’s a key part of what we’re gonna be looking at going forward. I think for for for rights from a from a data space, you’re right. Obviously, EPL, we we we head into the new contract. I think it’s August 25. You know, there was a step up as you’d anticipate, but that step up is built into our, built into our guide of a 25,000,000 EBITDA on that, and that step up in margin to 20¢.

So that’s all cost in that. If you think about this, it’s similar to the sort of NFL deal. It’s it’s it’s completely visible. It’s fixed numbers. I’ve got complete visibility of what that data rights looks like all the way to twenty, thirty or when whenever that runs.

And and that’s I guess, so so that’s a really good position to be. So there’s nothing significant on the on the EPL deal of that. Once you’re into the new deal, there was a step up, as I said. Now once you’re into the deal, it’s relatively shallow once you’re into the deal, in normal times. So so, yeah, rights is, you know, something that that we obviously carefully look at.

We’ve we’ve on record and continue to say we don’t need anymore. We’re not you know, I I think the rights market has been relatively rational. We’re delighted with the with the NCAA deal that we announced last week. Yeah. You know, that’s entirely accretive as as we talked about, I think, the earnings call and and in previous press releases.

So, you know, there’s obviously sports federations and and leagues that we’d be delighted to work with, but we’re in a fortunate position to do it where where we have to make sure that it’s entirely accretive.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: Right. Understood. Maybe this last question here, I wanted to make sure we touched on capital allocation, especially given the recent equity raise. So m and a has been a hot topic with con conversation with investors. But then you also have the hundred million dollar buyback authorization that I think Mark characterized as just, like, good housekeeping, I believe.

But, like, how should we think about, you know, now that, you know, you guys are generating free cash flow now or expect to be more so this year than last year even? How we should be thinking about the that use of cash being deployed? And if this uncertainty in the macro, is that impacting that m and a pipeline at all?

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: Yeah. Look. A couple of things. I’ll I’ll I’ll deal with the the buyback now. Mark’s actually right.

That’s exactly the right word for it. Housekeeping. It’s just another brick in our maturity. And we’ve always had shareholder approval. We have had for the last two years.

We you know, this is just getting board approval announcing it. It’s entirely opportunistic. It’s there whenever we ever need it. I’m not anticipating to do it anytime soon on on our current stock price levels. However, it’s there given the volatility in the macro economics that the in the world that we live in.

Our priority still remains m and a absolutely in terms of that. I’m I’m not you know, what I think it’s probably the only earnings call you’ve been listening to this year where somebody said we’ve done a lot of kissing, which is what Mark said on this call this this time, which which is which is a great answer. But the the point sorry. I’m bit flippant. The point the point is true.

You know, we’re looking we’re we’re out there. What we’re looking for really is is subscale high quality sports tech somewhere in that flywheel really, Ben, is is what we’re looking at. But the two things, you know, CFO, I can you know, two key things that I’m looking at really is it has to be margin accretive, but it has to be cash accretive. You know, we worked hard over the last four years as everyone knows to to get ourselves into that 20 plus EBITDA margins to be cash positive. We’re not gonna throw that away on speculative acquisitions.

So so that is really remains our our number one priority in this area.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: Got it. Well, let’s leave it there. You know, Mark kissing, that’s that’s probably a good point to leave it on. Yeah.

Nick Taylor, CFO, Genius Sports: He’s gonna love I hope he’s I hope he’s not listening.

Bernie Materne, Internet Analyst, Needham and Company: I I conject. No. Alright. Thanks, Nick. Thanks, everyone, for joining this morning.

Thanks, buddy.

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