Gracenote Acquires Infostrada, SportsDirect; Forms Gracenote Sports

Gracenote, a division of Tribune Media Company, has acquired Infostrada Statistics, B.V. (“Infostrada Sports”), and SportsDirect, Inc., and the launch of Gracenote Sports. The acquisitions make Gracenote the first global provider of music, video and sports data, and enable the company to provide one-stop data solutions for its roster of blue-chip clients in the U.S. and around the world.

Infostrada Sports and SportsDirect produce and distribute the most extensive set of sports data in North America, Europe and Asia—together, they will provide the foundation for Gracenote to deliver next-generation sports statistics to the rapidly growing sports entertainment market.

Infostrada Sports and SportsDirect provide Gracenote with in-depth sports data, including schedules, scores, play-by-play stats, as well as team and player information for all of the major professional leagues around the world including the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL), and European Football and the Olympics.  Gracenote will tap into these data sets and leverage its own entertainment data expertise to create new data-driven sports products and services for fantasy sports and fan applications, as well as a variety of online, broadcast and print media.

“Our clients have been asking for Gracenote to add sports data to the music and video solutions that we already provide worldwide,” says John Batter, CEO of Gracenote. “Gracenote has deep experience producing, packaging, and monetizing entertainment data for the world’s top music, movie and TV brands. The addition of sports allows us to apply our technology and data capabilities to the sports sector and create new ways to enhance the fan experience.”

Gracenote will also work with its existing customer base, which includes the world’s top cable and satellite operators, consumer electronics manufacturers and automakers, to define entirely new experiences for sports fans. As connected devices become even more pervasive, Gracenote will be uniquely positioned to drive viewer tune-in by featuring next-generation sports data and statistics in cable and satellite program guides. Gracenote will also be able to deliver sports data as statistical overlays for live sports events on Smart TVs and handsets, and live alerts on automobile dashboards.

Based in the Netherlands, Infostrada Sports focuses on the Olympics and European football sports data with global and historical coverage for more than 250 sports, in 17 languages, dating back more than 100 years. The company has cultivated deep partnerships with broadcasters, national Olympic committees, international sports federations, and sporting event organizers around the world. In addition, Infostrada Sports has developed a sports data platform to deliver direct data feeds to its global customers.

SportsDirect is based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and is a leading provider of sports data and statistics for more than 50 leagues and 2,000 teams across the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), soccer, golf, auto racing and tennis.  Its data currently serves top media companies including Thomson Reuters and USA Today Sports, as well as fantasy sites, sports books and ad networks. These companies rely on SportsDirect for high quality sports analysis, news and coverage, scores, statistics and photos.

As part of the SportsDirect acquisition, Gracenote has also acquired the Covers Media Group, the operator of Covers.com, North America’s premier online sports gaming destination for scores, odds and matchups, unique editorial analyses and industry news coverage.

The acquisitions of Infostrada Sports, SportsDirect, Covers and launch of the Gracenote Sports business will also deliver value to Tribune Media by enabling it to integrate the data generated by these companies across its 42 broadcast stations and related web sites. Tribune Media broadcasts NFL games to 22 major TV markets and the MLB, NBA and NHL in key local markets, including Chicago and New York, and the combination of live sports coverage with industry-leading data will enhance viewer and fan experience.

The total acquisition price paid by Gracenote for Infostrada Sports, SportsDirect and Covers was approximately $54 million, subject to customary adjustments.