FairPlay Sports Media, the world’s most respected sports media network and BetTech pioneers, has bolstered its platform with the acquisition of Toronto-based Quarter4 (Q4), a deep-learning neural network specialising in predicting sporting outcomes and providing unique data and content opportunities founded in 2019 by Danijela Covic and Kelly Brooks.

This is the first acquisition to be made by FairPlay Sports Media, a Bruin Capital business. The move aligns with the company’s mission to transform BetTech for the advantage of worldwide consumers, publishers and betting operators.

Strategically, the deal will see FairPlay brands, including oddschecker and WhoScored.com, leverage Q4’s unrivalled prediction service in combination with the group’s decades of price movement data across millions of global sporting events. This purchase will provide immediate improvements to its existing offering and shape much of its tech-led activity in the future.

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The group’s oddschecker brand has been showcasing Q4’s prediction models to registered users for the past year across various US sports, with the network capable of providing unique insights across various betting markets for NFL, NBA, WNBA and NHL events. These predictions furnish end users with the knowledge that further levels the sports playing field while providing another retention tool for the group’s global audience, which, in turn, will foster deeper fan engagement and digital dwell time.

FairPlay’s established group of media and publication partners, including Reach plc, Gazzetta, DAZN and Forbes, will be able to derive more engaging content for readers with a service that goes beyond the conventional “tipster” and “Capper” model. At the same time, operators can gain pricing efficiencies across complex markets such as player props and micro-betting.

Stuart Simms, Group CEO at FairPlay Sports Media, said: “The acquisition of Quarter4 is a significant milestone for our group, giving our various brands the ability to unleash our already market-leading data and tech platform with the unique insights and smarter behavioural analytic capabilities of Q4.

“Pioneering BetTech is critical to our future strategy and ambitious growth prospects, and bringing Quarter4 into the group can act as the catalyst for many new and improved product developments in the coming months and beyond.”

Kelly Brooks, CEO and Co-Founder of Quarter4, said: “Having successfully partnered with oddschecker as a client, we’re now very excited to begin this deeply integrated working relationship that will pave the future for highly differentiated user experiences. The technical synergies between the FairPlay group and Quarter4 are clear, and we’re ready to deliver more value to our various partners worldwide with the mutual advantages of this deal.”

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Quarter4’s brand new March Madness 2024 product will be one of the first significant benefits to partners, with the AI-powered white-label predictor tool ready to engage existing and new users with a branded “DIY Bracket” that taps into one of the largest and most engaged betting audiences of the year.