The new offering will cover boxing, including pre-fight markets and live in-play betting before eventually being expanded to MMA and other combat sports
AI and sports data company FX1 has partnered with sports intelligence business Twenty First Group to develop a new combat sports betting offering for sportsbooks and prediction market platforms.
Under the partnership, FX1’s combat sports data and AI technology will be combined with Twenty First Group’s pricing and line-making expertise to produce pre-fight and live in-play betting markets.
Initially, the offering will cover boxing, covering pre-fight markets and live in-play betting. This will be expanded to MMA and other combat sports, FX1 and Twenty First confirmed.
FX1’s database covers more than one million fights and 500,000 fighters. In addition, its MotionAI system analyses live competition from video and converts fighter movement and action into real-time data and predictive inputs.
The companies said that combat sports are “underserved” in regulated sports betting and prediction markets, highlighting “fragmented” data across disciplines, promotions, events and regions. They added that this has limited the depth and variety of markets available to operators.
Creating a ‘global standard’ for combat sports betting
Damien Dau, founder and CEO of FX1, said while combat sports have attracted huge global audiences for some time, the data infrastructure has not kept pace. He said the combined offering with Twenty First Group will address this issue.
“It remains one of the hardest environments in sport to capture accurately in real time,” he said. “As the way fans watch, interact with and experience sport continues to evolve, leagues and promotions need a new data layer built for that future.
“By combining FX1’s proprietary technology with Twenty First Group’s proven expertise in pricing and predictive intelligence, we have an opportunity to establish a new global standard for combat sports and unlock data, markets and experiences that haven’t been possible before.”
Will Stephenson, chief betting officer at Twenty First Group, said that while combat sports have “enormous untapped potential”, the fragmented nature of the data has caused problems within the market.
He believes the new partnership has the potential to “set a new standard” in the category. “Together, our goal is to build the infrastructure and intelligence layer the entire combat sports category can benefit from,” he added.