Premier League supports US sports betting vision
The English Premier League agrees with US sports leagues’ vision of legal sports betting.
US.- After representatives from the NBA, MLB and the PGA Tour testified that they support the regulation of sports betting in the United States, the English Premier League said that it supports the framework that attorneys from the US sports leagues are trying to approve.
An executive from the Premier League said that the betting market would be at its best if the US creates a partnership between sports leagues and bookmakers. Adrian Ford, General Manager of Football DataCo – the official rights holder for the Premier League and all professional soccer leagues in England and Scotland – said: “Broadly, we don’t think that what the leagues are asking for is fundamentally wrong if you’re trying to come up with a framework that works for both parties.”
“We would not see why there would be an issue about sports getting a return from betting. We’d echo some of the high-level statements the NBA has made. If someone is making money off us, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be interested in that and why we shouldn’t have some level of involvement in the commercial return. It’s clearly not what we have here [in the United Kingdom],” Ford told ESPN in a phone interview.
The NBA, MLB and PGA are asking for a 0.25 to one per cent fee of the amount bet on league events. “Ultimately, the common goal – and it is easier said than done – must be seen to have a functioning, regulated, safe betting market that brings all the offshore money onshore for the good of the sport, for the protection of the players and presumably for the good of the states that are going to get tax revenues,” Ford added.
