NBA To Cut Off Unauthorized Sportsbooks from League Data

While sports betting in the United States is starting to take off in major ways across the United States, the National Basketball Association (NBA) has just found a new way of profiting from the activities. The professional sports league has now resorted to strong-arm tactics in a bid to force the sports betting operators to pay fees in order to be granted access to official league data. Those that fail to abide by this rule will lose the opportunity to offer a proper roster of in-play wagering markets to sports bettors.

News of this development was announced last Friday by ESPN scribe David Payne Purdum – he confirmed that sportsbooks in the country had indeed received a de facto data ultimatum from Sportradar which is an official supplier of NBA data to sports betting operators in the United States, more so in states where sports betting is legal and regulated.

As stipulated in a letter that was addressed to its customers, Sportradar stated that “only Authorized Gaming Operators of the NBA are eligible to receive the NBA Official Data Feed” for wagering in sports betting-friendly states and, therefore, beginning 11:59pm EST on May 28, “all Authorized Data Distributors must cease providing to you NBA Official Data” unless, of course, the operators prove that they are aware of the NBA’s secret handshake.

What Does This Mean for Sports Betting Operations in the United States?

Rumors of the threats by NBA’s and MBA’s plans to coerce sports betting operators to pay a fee began circulating earlier this month. While there was very little doubt that they were capable of doing just that, no one would have expected that they would opt for the strong-arm tactics that the NBA has chosen to go with.

Without access to the official in-game data, the unauthorized sportsbooks will not be able to provide proposition bets on the outcomes of events during a contest. Even though most bets, as it stands, are on the games themselves (examples include the point spread, the money line, or the over-under point total), it goes without saying that in-game betting is gaining the most attention and is, therefore, the future of growth in the sports betting industry.

“I think what was very important for the NBA was that we were able to establish through a commercial relationship that we should be compensated for our intellectual property and for our official data,” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver last July at a press conference.

There are already a number of partnerships between the pro sports leagues and sports betting operators – the NBA, for instance, has partnered with MGM Resorts International, The Stars Group and FanDuel – and in all of these cases, the sportsbooks have agreed to a pay a premium for the official NBA league data.

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