The current surge of sports betting promises to also increase access to valuable marketing data. Genius Sports, a technology company that manages sports data for sportsbooks, leagues, and media companies, is making its betting-related data and insights available to programmatic advertisers through newly announced partnerships with agencies, publishers, SSPs, and DSPs.

• Partnerships include DirecTV Advertising, FreeWheel, Magnite, PubMatic and The Weather Company.

The partnerships extend Genius Sports’ Moment Engine to 90% of the programmatic ad ecosystem, according to a company release. The Moment Engine combines official sports data, proprietary AI models, and fan data to help advertisers place effective ads linked to in-game moments, as well as to relevant sports-related moments before and after games.

In November, Publicis Sports became Genius Sports’ first agency partner. Their aim was to take this data source, combine it with Epsilon insights, and identify sports fans and flag opportunities to serve relevant ads.

“Making our fan graph on top of Epsilon…it's not just the moment, the moment matters, but being able to take that moment, and take that data, and making it so that we can action off of it,” said Suzy Deering, CEO of Publicis Sports, at Genius Sports’ NewFronts presentation.

What sports data can do

A tool like the Moment Engine helps advertisers, agencies, and publishers pull insights from the action, which also helps generate conversations between sports fans.

• Genius Sports serves as the NFL's official distributor of live play-by-play stats and betting data, and is also an ad inventory reseller.
• In February, Genius Sports announced a partnership with NBC Sports Regional Networks to provide live insights for local NBA broadcasts.
• The US live sports audience is 164.7 million, per EMARKETER.

The NFL estimates 15 billion such conversations take place every year, according to Marissa Solis, senior vice president of global brand and consumer marketing for the NFL.

“The stories can range from great things happening on the field, to who's showing up at the stadium, and who you can see on broadcast, to the tunnel walks, all the way to what's happening in culture,” said Solis, at the NewFronts presentation.

These conversations are part of every fan’s journey, Solis explained. Though, there are thousands of unique journeys.

“The data allows us to harness insights at scale, as with a big Super Bowl commercial, but it also allows us to harness very personal insights,” she said.

Lowe’s lifestyle campaign

More data allows sports marketers to engage fans outside of game-specific moments. Lowe’s used this insight for its fall 2025 campaign, “Earn Your Sunday.”

The campaign positioned the retailer as a resource to football fans, helping them get home improvement projects done throughout the week, so they can enjoy football on Sundays without interruption. Deeper insights about sports fans can help brands connect relevantly with these fans even when they’re not watching, because there’s more data, from a source like the Moment Engine, to identify and target this segment.

“For us, it's capturing that journey, capturing that moment, and being part of the experience, versus just showing up on Sunday and selling you things,” said Kyle McCarthy, vice president and chief creative officer at Lowe’s, at the NewFronts panel.

Publicis Sports wants to use their partnership with Genius Sports to inspire consumer loyalty and deeper connections through a shared passion for sports.

“To turn it into lifestyle, we now have taken it past just the game that happens on the field, and to do that, do it authentically, and especially on behalf of brands, you have to have the right data to make it living,” said Deering. “It can't just be data for data's sake.”

This was originally featured in the EMARKETER Daily newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.