OpticOdds Litigation Update

In a court filing submitted yesterday evening, OpticOdds and OddsJam are pursuing counterclaims against Swish Analytics alleging that Swish is violating antitrust laws that prohibit algorithmic price fixing. OddsJam and OpticOdds were built around one idea: price transparency. We believe open, accurate market information makes sports betting better. There are three key takeaways from the counterclaims we are pursuing:

1. Swish Analytics has publicly admitted that it undertakes widespread web scraping of gambling and odds data. This is precisely the same thing that they allege is illegal in their lawsuit against us. The hypocrisy is equal parts inexplicable and astonishing.
2. We allege that Swish Analytics, a business based in San Francisco, provides a common pricing algorithm which is based on pricing data from businesses that compete with each other, which is unlawful under California’s primary antitrust law, the Cartwright Act. In plain terms, as we allege in the counterclaims, the process by which Swish provides its “odds information” to sportsbooks allows Swish to orchestrate an illegal price fixing scheme. When competing sportsbooks all rely on the same algorithm, their lines converge, which means less price variation, less competition, and fewer, worse odds for the bettors who are ultimately harmed. Transparency is the antidote: it lets bettors spot which lines are out of step and forces the market to actually compete. Our filing lays out these allegations in detail.
3. As we allege in the counterclaims, Swish Analytics decided in 2024 they had to eliminate the OddsJam and OpticOdds businesses and undertook a pressure campaign against our clients to destroy our businesses. As a result of discovery in the lawsuit, we are now better aware of the full extent of this allegedly illegal activity. The litigation process will reveal what Swish’s motives are, but we allege that Swish launched this unlawful campaign because it realized that the price transparency that OddsJam and OpticOdds provide to consumers and our customers in the sports betting industry was antithetical to Swish’s algorithmic price fixing.

We will continue to vigorously defend ourselves against the categorically meritless allegations of Swish’s original complaint and will now also vigorously pursue these counterclaims.

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View the filing here

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