Steven Burton, regarded by the independent legal directory Chambers and Partners as “the foremost legal authority” in sports data, is to join Genius Sports as Director of Integrity, Governance and Sports Partnerships.

An internationally recognised sports lawyer, Steven brings seventeen years’ expertise in the collection, exploitation and protection of sports data and sports integrity matters.

As a Partner and the Head of Sports Data, Betting & Integrity at Couchmans LLP (one of the world’s premier sports law firms) Steven advised numerous international sports leagues and federations including Football DataCo Limited (Premier League, English Football League and Scottish Professional Football League), ATP Tour, WTA Tour, the International Tennis Federation (ITF), Israeli Professional Football League, The Football Association of Ireland and Liga de Futbol Profesional (LFP Spanish Football).

From a sports partnerships perspective, Steven has been involved in some of the biggest and most valuable sports data deals of all time. He has advised Football DataCo Limited since its creation in 1999. He recently helped the ITF to negotiate a new five-year data rights deal covering more than 90,000 tennis matches per year – the largest single package of official data rights in world sport, and worked with La Liga to implement their first ever official data rights scheme in 2014.