US major sports leagues get ready for betting

All major leagues in the US are getting ready for the SCOTUS ruling on PASPA, which would allow sports betting nationwide.

US.- The Professional and Amateur Sports Act (PASPA) of 1992 may soon be revoked if the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) rules as the industry expects, allowing sports betting all across the country. That’s why all four major leagues of sports in the US are getting ready to face the new scenario and are taking different approaches to the situation.

Despite historically considering sports betting as a threat to business, the leagues have been educating players, have started studying analytics that monitor betting data and have researched the partnerships and business opportunities that surely will create new revenue streams.

Furthermore, the NBA and the MLB have been getting involved with the lawmaking progress and – unlike the NFL and the NH L- have shared thoughts on their preferred model with lawmakers. “We were happy to sit with legislators and look at the economics and talk about what is the best system,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said.

Bryan Seeley, MLB’s senior vice president and deputy general counsel, told the Kansas legislature that legal sports betting would actually help integrity: “One of the primary benefits of a regulated sports betting industry would be increased transparency into what is currently a black box: the betting data in the illegal market,” he said, adding: “This would provide access to billions of points of data, which could be aggregated, analysed and acted upon in real time to protect games from outside influences.”

The NFL and the NHL have been a bit more discrete than the other two leagues. NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly commented that they “will be guided by what the Supreme Court ultimately decides” and added: “Things won’t change immediately or overnight. We will digest the opinion and make adjustments to our existing policies as necessary.”

Meanwhile, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said: “Regardless of the outcome, we will maintain our relentless focus on protecting the integrity of the game and ensure there are no improper influences affecting how the game is played on the field (…) If there are changes, we will work with regulators, operators, the clubs, players and others to ensure that our fans and the game and the people who play, coach and officiate it are protected.”