UK Peer Pushes for Criminal Penalties Over Unlicensed Sports Data in Gambling Sector

The fight over who owns sports data has resurfaced in the UK Parliament, with a senior member of the House of Lords calling for criminal penalties against companies that collect and sell match data without permission.

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Speaking during debate on the Sporting Events Bill, Lord Don Foster argued that the current legal framework leaves sports organisations with little practical ability to stop unlicensed data providers. His proposal sought to make the commercial use of unlicensed sports data a criminal offence, a step he believes would make enforcement far more effective.

The wider bill is intended to streamline legislation for hosting major sporting events. Foster attempted to expand its scope by addressing what many rights holders describe as sports data piracy, where event information is gathered and sold without approval from the relevant governing body or an authorised data partner.

Government Declines to Add New Offence

The proposed changes did not survive the bill’s report stage.

Ministers maintained there is no evidence that unlicensed sports data has become a significant enough problem to justify creating a new criminal offence. They left the door open to revisiting the issue in the future, noting that the government’s illegal gambling task force could examine it if circumstances change.

Foster took a different view. He argued that sports bodies already rely on licensing agreements with specialist data companies, which collect live event information before selling access to betting operators and other commercial customers. Those agreements generate valuable income for sports organisations, but policing them remains difficult. In his view, the absence of a specific criminal offence makes legal action against companies using unlicensed feeds unnecessarily complicated.

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LSports Named During Lords Debate

The discussion became more pointed when Foster referred to Israel-based sports data supplier LSports. He alleged the company collects sports data in the UK without the necessary licences, arguing that such practices reduce revenues that would otherwise flow back to domestic sports organisations before the information reaches gambling companies.

LSports strongly disputed the allegations.

The company said it operates within English law and has not violated intellectual property or data rights. It also rejected the suggestion that its activities amount to piracy.

Instead, LSports said its products are built through its own scouting network, television-based data collection and proprietary computer vision technology rather than unlicensed copying. The company also highlighted its role as the International Tennis Federation’s official technology partner for Level 3 data under an existing commercial agreement.

While Foster’s proposed amendments were not adopted, the parliamentary debate has renewed attention on the legal status of sports data and whether existing civil remedies are enough as the betting industry becomes increasingly dependent on real-time information.

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Source: igamingexpress.com