LSports pushes back on UK data ‘piracy’ allegations, eyes deeper British market entry

LSports has forcefully rejected accusations levelled in the House of Lords that it illegally harvests data from UK sporting events, while confirming it sees Britain as a growth market.

The Israeli sports-data provider responded after Liberal Democrat peer Lord Foster of Bath attempted to amend the Sporting Events Bill to criminalise unlicensed use of sports data. He singled out firms he accused of “scraping data” from UK teams and competitions, costing the domestic sports industry vital revenue.

LSports told iGaming Expert that it “respects the rule of law and operates lawfully” and described its current UK footprint as “limited”. However, the company acknowledged that it wants to expand its presence in the market.

Company’s stance

“LSports is a sports data provider incorporated and operating under the laws of the State of Israel,” the firm said. “LSports has not infringed any party’s intellectual property or data rights, and we reject the characterisation of our work as piracy.”

It explained that it gathers data through a proprietary scouting network, television-based collection and its own computer-vision technology — not through unauthorised scraping.

Legal backdrop

The controversy likely gained attention because of a high-profile Israeli court case filed by Sportradar in February. Sportradar accused LSports of using data belonging to it. LSports has consistently denied the claim.

Israel’s Copyright Act does not extend copyright to “facts or data”, so the case centres on whether Sportradar can prove LSports did not collect the data itself. UK law contains a similar principle, though database rights protect content where there has been “substantial investment in obtaining, verifying or presenting the data”.

Lord Foster’s proposed amendment made little headway; Gambling Minister Baroness Twycross struck it down.

Market dynamics

Sports data is a multi-billion-dollar industry, valued for its use by teams, leagues and gambling operators. According to its website, LSports covers over 100 sports from 15,000 leagues worldwide and lists Betano, Betsson and Betfred among its operator clients. It has been a data distributor and technology partner for the International Tennis Federation since 2024.

On the claim that UK sport loses money because of its activities, LSports argued that restricting the number of data suppliers would harm revenue growth. “The market for sports data is contested. A competitive market of licensed providers grows the revenue that flows back to the leagues and gives operators genuine choice,” the company said. “Placing all access to sports data in the hands of a single company does the opposite.”

Foster also accused LSports of facilitating illegal gambling through the operators it works with. LSports stressed that it supplies data to operators, not gambling services to consumers. It added that “licensing of any given operator in its own market is a matter for that operator and its regulator” and that as a policy it does not operate in sanctioned jurisdictions.

Currently, the UK Gambling Act does not require data providers to be licensed by the Gambling Commission.