NBA announces deal to give its real-time data to sportsbooks for in-game betting
With legalized gambling beginning to take over the sports world, the National Basketball Association has struck a deal to give sportsbooks its real-time data for the growing world of in-game betting, the league announced on Wednesday.
Per the release, the NBA has given sports data companies Sportradar and Genius Sports the non-exclusive rights to distribute the league’s official betting data to licensed sports-betting operators in the U.S. This deal includes data for both the NBA and WNBA and all preseason, regular season and postseason games.
This is just the latest deal the NBA has struck since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized sports gambling in May. The league had previously named MGM as its “official gaming partner” in July.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver called the move a way to ensure fans will have access to reliable numbers in legal gambling settings.
From the release:
“Sportradar and Genius Sports are proven leaders in data distribution and will deliver unparalleled, real-time official NBA betting data,” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. “As the sports betting landscape continues to evolve at a rapid pace, these new partnerships will provide robust and reliable data to ensure the best possible gaming experience for our fans in the U.S.”
While most fans understand gambling as a pregame activity, a strong in-game betting environment could represent a massive cash cow for sportsbooks judging from these numbers from ESPN:
Bookmakers in the United Kingdom say that more money is bet during a match than before it, and the popularity of live betting is growing in the U.S., too. At a gaming conference this week in New York, an executive for FanDuel’s sportsbook in New Jersey said in-game betting accounts for an estimated 40 percent of the amount wagered at its book.
The NBA likely won’t be the only major league to jump on such an opportunity.
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred implied that his league is also eyeing in-game wagering on Tuesday, noting that baseball’s infamously slow pace of play could benefit it when it comes to gamblers making bets between plays.
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