While sports have been dormant during the COVID pandemic, it is safe to say that some of the major players in the sports analytics sector have not. It seems that they have been using this time to form key partnerships in order to bring sports fans new and exciting ways to enjoy the sports they love upon return. One company, Stats Perform, has used this time to develop valuable partnerships that will no doubt put them in a place to see massive growth once sports return. Just this past week, the Chicago based company formed partnerships with both ChyronHego and Sports Buff while also managing to sign an exclusive deal with the Premier League and the Scottish Premiership. This recent growth could be propelled by the robust IP portfolio held by Stats Perform, sporting 11 documents in the Sports Analytics sector. However, their patent data does raise some questions that could be linked back to the long-term nature of their recent business decisions.
Since July 2019, their patent activity has seen a dramatic decrease with no applications published or patents granted for what has almost been a full year. It is possible that this change in activity could be partially traced back to their recent leadership change back in January 2018, when they named former Lexmark Senior Vice President, Carl Mergele as the new CEO. This possibility begins to grow when you consider the interesting past Lexmark has with IP and the protections of the laws surrounding it. Could this experience have lead Mergele to substitute long-term exclusivity agreements with clients for the typical protections of patents? While this is all up to speculation, it is clear that Stats Perform's accession within the sector is far from over as they continue to ramp up their business deals and rights agreements.
Learn more about the patent activity of these companies and others in the sports analytics sector using Magic Number® Sports Analytics Patent Forecast®.
