Football Data Ecosystem: Sources and Methods

About this map

The Football Data Ecosystem map shows 55 entities across 6 layers of the football data industry: rights holders, corporate owners, primary data providers (event + tracking), aggregators, downstream consumers, and end users. It visualises 66 relationships (ownership, licensing, data flow, and one terminated link) as of April 2026.

Relationships were verified individually. Only edges with a confirmable source are included. Where a relationship is widely understood but could not be independently verified (e.g. Understat's data source), the node remains in the diagram but no edge is drawn.

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Entity research

Popover content for 12 entities was sourced from structured research (the input research document). The remaining entities were verified via web research. Entities marked with † have citations in their popover.

From structured research document

• Sofascore, FotMob, Flashscore / Livesport, Understat, WhoScored, TheSportsDB
• API-Football, SportMonks, SkillCorner, Opta Analyst, Fantasy Premier League, Football DataCo

Verified via web research †

• Genius Sports — revenue, FDC extension, Legend acquisition: Stock Titan, Genius IR, Sportico
• Impect — Catapult acquisition (Oct 2025, EUR 78M): MAInsights, GP Bullhound
• InStat — Hudl acquisition (Aug 2022): Hudl blog, BusinessWire
• RunningBall — Stats Perform ultra-fast data, FIFA WC 2026 rights: Stats Perform, FIFA
• LiveScore — Flutter acquisition (Oct 2024, ~$423M): Flutter
• Catapult Sports — revenue, team count: Catapult IR
• SciSports — Hudl acquisition, FM partnership: Hudl blog, SciSports
• Enetpulse — MBO, FotMob/LiveScore relationships: Enetpulse, Enetpulse (FotMob case)
• StatsBomb / FBref termination — Jan 2026: Sports Reference blog, The IX Sports

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Relationship sources

Every edge in the diagram was verified against a public source. Edges that could not be verified were removed (see "Removed relationships" below).

Ownership (13 edges)

Licensing (7 edges)

Data flow (45 edges)

Terminated (1 edge)

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Removed relationships

The following edges were considered but removed after failing verification:

• Opta → Football Manager — FM uses SciSports, not Opta (since FM21)
• Opta → Understat — Understat's raw data source is undisclosed; no public confirmation it uses Opta data
• SkillCorner → The Athletic — No public source confirming a data partnership between SkillCorner and The Athletic

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Standalone nodes

One entity has no edges in the diagram:

• Understat — Independent xG model. Raw data source is undisclosed and could not be verified. Multiple analytics community discussions treat Understat's data as separate from Opta, but neither confirmation nor denial exists publicly. Kept in the diagram because it is a significant consumer-facing analytics platform.

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Caveats

1. This map reflects the state of the ecosystem as of April 2026. Ownership structures, licensing deals, and data partnerships change frequently.
2. Not all relationships are shown. Many clubs, federations, and media organisations have bespoke data arrangements that are not publicly documented.
3. Revenue and user figures are estimates where not officially disclosed. Sources are noted where available.
4. The map focuses on football data specifically. Many of these companies (Sportradar, Genius, Catapult, Hawk-Eye) operate across multiple sports — only their football operations are depicted.
5. Some edges labelled "data flow" represent known client relationships rather than formally documented data licensing agreements.
6. Several research agents did not have web search access and returned training-knowledge-only responses. Where possible, these were cross-checked by agents with web access. Remaining unverifiable claims are noted in popover text.