Project Red Card is arguing that under the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR, companies like Genius, Sports Radar, Opta and Statsbomb need the players’ consent – and should be paying for the privilege [of processing players’ performance data]. “GDPR has very, very strict rules about the controlling and processing of sensitive areas of data,” Dutton says.
The group argues that under UK and EU data protection laws, players’ performance data is actually personal data, and is being exploited for financial gain without their consent.
According to Project Red Card, performance data isn’t just about lost revenues. It can make and break careers. “The details of their passing accuracy, their fitness, their speed, all of those things which you see in various guises on countless websites or games – that’s how players are assessed now,” Richard Dutton, who represents Project Red Card, says.
IANAL, but it seems a weak case to extract some of the profit based on the players performance.
On the other hand, if the rights are attributed to the players even for public performances, maybe it can be extended to other cases, such as tracking people in public.
