Global Sports Data and Technology Group along with 400 professional football players has filed a lawsuit over personal data usage. The lawsuit will be seeking compensation for lost dividends for players in the last six years.

Lawsuit with More Than 400 Professional Football Players

A massive lawsuit is gaining momentum over the use of professional football players’ personal data. Reported by the Athletic, some 400 ex and current football players are participating in the lawsuit against betting companies and gaming companies who used personal data of the players.

According to the lawsuit, performance data as well as personal data was used by those companies without any consent or compensation for the players. The players which are a part of the lawsuit are from the Premier League, English Football League (EFL), Scottish Premiership and the National League.

The professional football players are after six years of lost dividends. In the event that the lawsuit claim is successful, “hundreds of millions of pounds” can be expected, said the Athletic. If the claim is successful, individual compensations for the professional players can be in tens of thousands of pounds, but this is yet to be calculated depending on how much data was used for each of the players.

The Lawsuit Is Named “Project Red Card”

The above described lawsuit is named “Project Red Card”. Here, it is important to mention that the project is spearheaded by Russel Slade and Jason Dunlop who co-founded the company Global Sports Data and Technology Group. Russel Slade previously managed a few ELF clubs commented on the subject for BBC by saying: “Players need to be signing [consent] if their data is going to travel.“

Slade continued by outlining that currently, a few clubs are starting to see the importance of personal data transfer. He noted that the company would like to assist them in this endeavor. Slade did not miss to say that the data which is actually stored is not entirely accurate. As an example, he pointed out a player which was listed with wrong height. “That wouldn’t be an issue over here as people would know who he is, but that could have been an issue getting a job abroad,” added Slader.

Dunlop also commented on the subject by saying: “We have no issue with football clubs using the data, nor do the players involved in this case.” He continued by saying that the bigger issue is where data goes afterwards. According to Dunlop, the footballers personal and performance data then goes into gaming and betting companies.