Gambling Outfit DraftKings in Pact to Use Official Baseball Data

(Bloomberg) -- DraftKings Inc. is becoming an official gambling partner of Major League Baseball in a multiyear deal that will let the company offer betting lines and products backed by MLB’s official data.

MLB is the second-most-popular league among DraftKings’ betting customers, trailing the NFL and topping the NBA. Of the three sports, baseball has by far the most games each season, and the stop-and-start nature of the game lends itself well to live betting.

“This is going to give us better, faster data, and allow us to power a lot of in-game wagering,” said Ezra Kucharz, DraftKings’ chief business officer. “You’re going to see us do more, faster propositions that are tied to individual at-bats, and maybe even pitch-by-pitch.”

DraftKings and MGM Resorts International, which signed a marketing partnership last November, are the only sports books to partner directly with the league so far. Once an operator receives the MLB stamp of approval, it is then allowed to work with one of league’s official data partners, such as Sportradar AG or Perform Group, for access to live feeds from games around the country. That data is especially important for the in-game betting Kucharz described, which is becoming many gamblers’ preferred way to wager.

MLB’s Goal

Deals like this are also critical for MLB’s goal of claiming a share of the growing sports betting industry. While operators in Las Vegas have offered baseball betting for decades without becoming official MLB partners, the league is hoping that access to its official data -- plus the right to use team logos alongside betting lines -- will be enough to entice sportsbooks to open their wallets.

The concept, similar to the NBA’s approach, has been controversial, and some operators have refused to engage. Since the start of the season, MLB has allowed operators that aren’t official partners to access the sport’s official data while discussing these partnerships. At some point in the future, the league plans to restrict access to the data for any operator that isn’t an official partner.

DraftKings, founded in 2012 as a daily fantasy operator, has quickly become one of the country’s sports betting leaders. MLB had a small equity stake in DraftKings as a result of a prior partnership, but Kucharz said the league sold the investment privately earlier this year.

In total, 10 states now offer legal sports wagering, with another seven pending launch. DraftKings operates in New Jersey and Mississippi, and expects to be in two or three more states by the end of the year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eben Novy-Williams in New York at enovywilliam@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, John J. Edwards III

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