With the March Madness Basketball Tournament set to begin this week, a first ever agreement for NCAA sports betting data has been reached between the the Mid-American Conference and Genius Sports for providing statistical data. Representatives for the Conference stated that this could be the beginning of an era of statistical data ownership when it comes to collegiate athletics.

As exciting as the announcement of this agreement is, however, Genius’ actual sports betting services are not included. Instead, the company will provide only free-play games to engage with fans, monitor the integrity of the data, and give them the ability to manage and market that data.

Genius, which is based in London, is in the business of selling data from partners like the National Football League and the English Premier League, to sportsbooks. Up to now, the NCAA has declined to take advantage of their data being used in this fashion. And to date, they have refused any type of deals with sportsbooks for NCAA sports betting.

Mid-American Conference Commissioner, Jon Steinbrecher, added that “This partnership will permit us to exert greater control of our statistics, provide increased oversight over events through the utilization of integrity services and provide support and financial benefits for the conference and its membership.”