Global football administrator FIFA yesterday announced that it has selected sports AI and data pioneer Stats Perform as its first-ever official betting data and betting streaming rights distributor in a landmark multi-year agreement.

The partnership, according to a FIFA statement, grants Stats Perform exclusive rights to distribute official betting data and live streams for selected FIFA properties, including all 104 matches at the expanded FIFA World Cup 2026, as well as the FIFA Women’s World Cup Brazil 2027, the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2028, the FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup 2029, the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in 2026 and 2028, the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2027 and 2029 and the FIFA Intercontinental Cup from 2026 to 2029.

It also grants exclusive betting rights to thousands of matches per season across FIFA Member Association competitions powered by FIFA+, the free, global digital streaming and content platform for football fans owned by the football body.

Stats Perform’s agile RunningBall team will collect and exclusively distribute ultrafast official FIFA betting data to licensed sports betting operators for modelling, trading, settlement and in-play front-end use for the competitions covered in the agreement. Its globally trusted Opta team will exclusively provide official player statistics, insights, live scores and match trackers to sportsbooks, the statement added.

Romy Gai, FIFA Chief Business Officer, said: “We are delighted to partner with Stats Perform, a global leader in sports data. This innovative partnership will create great opportunities to deliver official products for the benefit of the game and its fans.”

Stats Perform will also serve as an official distributor of live FIFA match streams to customers of licensed sports betting operators in selected territories. This includes the exclusive distribution of FIFA World Cup 2026 and FIFA Women’s World Cup Brazil 2027 streams via Stats Perform’s award-winning, AI-enhanced Bet LiveStreams service.

Additionally, Stats Perform’s Integrity team will provide support to FIFA Integrity regarding Member Association content on FIFA+ that is covered under the partnership.

Carl Mergele, Chief Executive Officer at Stats Perform, said: “FIFA competitions represent the pinnacle of the world’s biggest game. Our clients will be delighted (that) we’re able to add FIFA competitions to our Opta and RunningBall official betting data portfolio, and our innovative, AI-enriched Bet LiveStreams service. We share FIFA’s vision to help the magic of the beautiful game be felt more deeply, by more fans, worldwide.”

(Image courtesy FIFA website)