SportsData Strikes NASCAR Deal, Becomes First To Shop Out Sanctioning Body’s Stats

NASCAR revealed an agreement it has struck with SportsData that will allow the stat-tracking company to shop the sanctioning body's race statistics out to third-party sites. NASCAR previously had kept the stats in house and only made them available to fans on its official website, meaning this will be the first time a content provider has gone to market with the sanctioning body's data. SportsData Founder & President Rob Phythian this morning would not reveal the structure of the deal beyond calling it "very traditional."

Deals of this nature typically entail a content provider paying the sanctioning body for the rights to its statistics. This sort of information most prominently includes who is leading the race and by how much in real time. Phythian, whose company began meeting with NASCAR about a possible deal last fall, said of why he thinks the sanctioning body chose to begin allowing its statistics to appear on third-party outlets, "Their strategy had been very internally focused, really building out their digital properties. … (But) Twitter broke down a lot of barriers. With that form of communication, there's been an acceptance of the way digital media was consumed content-wise, and it's just not in a walled garden." Adam Stern/SportsBusiness Daily