Major League Baseball and Sportradar announced a multi-year partnership that will expand distribution of real time statistics to fans around the world. The deal will start with the 2019 season, and will include media and betting data rights.
Sportradar will have the exclusive rights to distribute official MLB statistics internationally, and also to distribute audio-visual game feeds to betting operators in countries outside the U.S. where sports gambling is legal. The company will also have the exclusive rights to distribute stats to media within the U.S., and non-exclusive rights to provide betting data to states that have legalized sports betting.
“A high-quality, reliable, and fast official data feed is the building block to creating engaging gaming products for MLB fans,” said Kenny Gersh, MLB Executive Vice President, Gaming & New Business Ventures, in a press release. “We are excited about the opportunities that this partnership will unlock as the sports betting landscape continues to unfold in the U.S.”
The two partners also plan to work on creating new ways to engage fans, and MLB will leverage Sportradar’s experience with fraud detection to monitor games and protect the integrity of the sport in the new betting era.
“This is not only a tremendous opportunity for Sportradar, but ultimately it opens up new doors for MLB fans who have historically shown a proclivity for sophisticated data,” said Carsten Koerl, Chief Executive Officer of Sportradar.
SportTechie Takeaway
As the legalization of sports betting continues to spread, and gaming becomes part of the culture of U.S. sports, the value of official data will substantially grow. While data feeds have become important for fan engagement and fantasy sports, they are an essential component of the betting industry. The MLB-Sportradar partnership is another example of the deepening embrace of U.S. major sports of gambling, and comes less than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision against PASPA.