MLB Aims To Uphold The Integrity Of Baseball By Partnering With SportIM


Nov 7, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Detailed view of an official baseball during the Arizona Fall League Fall Stars game at Salt River Fields. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Sport Integrity Monitor (SportIM), a global sports integrity company, has just announced their partnership with Major League Baseball. The partnership aims to keep the integrity of MLB events in tact in a fast-changing online global landscape. SportIM will report the MLB trends in real time by collecting huge amounts of statistics and related data.

Dan Halem, Chief Legal Officer of MLB, said: “Major League Baseball is pleased to work with Sport Integrity Monitor in this vital area, as this partnership will be an essential part of our initiatives to protect the game’s integrity.  We look forward to making use of SportIM’s expertise and market-leading monitoring solutions in order to ensure that we have accurate and timely intelligence.”

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This is SportIM’s first partnership in North America. Previous partners include The English Premier League, Euroleague Basketball, and the Football Association. SportIM provides consultancy, risk assessments, education workshops, and better market monitoring that allows sports bodies to understand and manage any integrity concerns. The company currently monitors over 110,000 events per year across 20 different sports.

This partnership is just one of the MLB’s initiatives to incorporate a rigid anti-corruption policy. SportIM intends to prevent any security issues for the MLB as well. Although Halem said that the league’s latest move was not triggered by a particular incident, the league is taking extra precautions. The sport has its share of legal gambling and this is MLB’s way of tackling the matter before anything goes wrong.

It’s not just the MLB that is talking safeguards either. Last month, a trio of NBA owners — Michael Jordan, Mark Cuban and Ted Leonsis — invested a combined $44 million in sports data company Sportradar G, which both markets its services as an integrity monitor, similar to SportIM, and data provider for global bookmakers.

“It shows that MLB has a strong grasp and understanding of the risk and the opportunities that are being presented to the market,” SportIM Chief Executive Officer Mark Locke said. This new partnership hopes to ensure the integrity of MLB events.