Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019 – A roundup of some of the key sports technology news you need to know, including SportTechie’s own content and stories from around the web.
- EquiLottery Games and Major League Baseball are launching a new lottery game that lets players purchase tickets based on live MLB games. Baseball Bucks will feature brand marks of MLB and all 30 clubs as part of the multi-year deal. MLB and EquiLottery will also collaborate on future lottery games based on live baseball, including those that offer jackpots similar to Powerball or Mega Millions, according to a press release. Baseball Bucks marks the first time a U.S. professional sports league has entered the lottery draw game category.
- Bowling center operator Bowlero Corp has acquired the Professional Bowlers Association. In a press release, Bowlero promises to enhance Fox Sports telecasts of PBA events with new technology and deeper storytelling. In 2018, the PBA signed a multi-year media rights deal with Fox Sports to broadcast PBA Tour events on Fox, FS1, and Fox Sports Go. “Bringing Bowlero, the PBA, and FOX Sports together allows us to elevate the sport and meet a large and increasingly growing audience demand,” said Bill Wanger, EVP and head of programming and scheduling at Fox Sports. Bowlero operates more than 300 bowling locations across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
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- The Performance Racing Network has partnered with VSiN on a long-term deal for betting-related NASCAR content. A new 60-minute betting show Racers Odds will air this Sunday at 6 p.m. ET ahead of the start of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. VSiN’s sports betting experts Jeff Cogliandro and Steve Makinen will team up with PRN’s NASCAR analysts Jeff Hammond and John Roberts to help fans make more informed wagers. The show will stream on NASCAR.com, VSiN.com and SiriusXM Satellite Radio. NASCAR welcomed its first on-site sports betting station during a race at Dover International Speedway in Delaware last October.
- Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia will feature a giant, reconfigurable 4K scoreboard for the upcoming NHL and NBA seasons. The 90,000 pound scoreboard was unveiled on Wednesday, and hangs from the ceiling in the center of the arena, which hosts the NHL’s Flyers and NBA’s 76ers as well as the Arena Football League’s Soul and the National Lacrosse League’s Wings. The jumbo LED screen is 65 percent larger than the previous scoreboard at the venue and can be adapted into different configurations over the course of a game. The scoreboard is part of a $250 million multi-year investment in Wells Fargo Center.
- The UFC has begun negotiating a new media rights deal in China worth $20 million per year, according to the New York Post. That figure would be double what the UFC reportedly makes under the five-year deal that was signed with Chinese streaming provider PPTV in 2016. UFC is said to be talking with PPTV about retaining the rights but also engaging with Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Tencent. Duncan French, VP of performance at the UFC Performance Institute, talked about the organization’s plans for global expansion last month. “UFC’s next market for true international growth is China,” he told SportTechie senior writer Jen Booton.
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