Genius Sports partners with Basketball Africa League Statistics
The Basketball Africa League (BAL) and Genius Sports today announced a data partnership that makes Genius Sports the official provider of real-time BAL statistics.
Press release.- The Basketball Africa League (BAL) and Genius Sports today announced a data partnership that makes Genius Sports the Official Provider of Real-Time BAL Statistics.
The announcement comes following the BAL’s debut, which tipped off this Sunday, May 16 at the Kigali Arena in Kigali, Rwanda, with 12 teams from across Africa competing in the new professional league. The first BAL Finals will be held Sunday, May 30.
Through this partnership, Genius Sports will provide the BAL with its FIBA LiveStats data collection tool, which will be used to capture advanced play-by-play statistics from courtside at every BAL game, including shot, foul and turnover locations to highlight the league’s top performers and provide real-time updates for fans to follow the live-action.
Genius Sports is a long-term data technology partner of FIBA and its more than 200-member leagues and federations worldwide. The data captured by FIBA LiveStats will underpin BAL’s new digital ecosystem, powering its website, live broadcasts, media partnerships, and in-arena scoreboards.
“The BAL will showcase and develop the most exciting basketball talent from across Africa and we’re very proud that our statistics technology will be at the heart of this new competition,” said Genius Sports CEO Mark Locke.
“For more than 15 years, we have worked closely with FIBA to drive the development of world basketball and we’re thrilled to be working alongside the BAL to extend the sport’s reach and profile.”
The BAL, a pan-African partnership between the NBA and FIBA will feature 12 of the best club teams from across Africa playing a total of 26 games. Champions from the national leagues in Angola, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tunisia earned their participation in the inaugural BAL season.
The remaining six teams, which come from Algeria, Cameroon, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, and Rwanda, secured their participation through BAL qualifying tournaments conducted by FIBA Regional Office Africa across the continent in late 2019.
