WILMETTE, Ill. — Sports industry leaders are constantly looking to expand their revenue base and motorsports is no exception. The ultimate combination is to engage fans and give them a chance to earn money.
Betting could be the answer.
The expansion of legalized sports betting took off after a Supreme Court opinion in May 2018. This ruling invalidated the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act statute, which restricted regulated sports betting primarily to Nevada.
Six years in, sports betting is legal in 38 states, with ballot initiatives on the books that would add two more. The remaining states have deep-seated political opposition or complex tribal relationships that will likely prevent legal betting.
Now that sports betting is here, the various parties had to figure out how to make money at it. The most common way for fans was to place a winning bet then collect their winnings.
It’s a little more complicated for the leagues. They own and operate the sports properties. Long opposed to gambling, once they saw the tide changing, officials figured out it was in their best interest to embrace it.
Initially, they tried to get a cut of the sports betting money, claiming they needed payments to help protect the integrity of the game. Then, they wanted a share of betting proceeds because games were intellectual property of the leagues.
They arrived at the current solution — sell their data to gambling companies. They see value in using official league material. This allows bookmakers to create new products for gamblers to bet on.
Leagues are best suited to collect and extract this information. They are investing heavily in technology. The goal is to create new betting opportunities in a market that previously did not exist.
Gambling companies enter deals with leagues to buy their official data. It is not uncommon for the top properties (NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL) to have agreements with multiple sportsbook operators. Since profit margins are tight, lower-level sports may not have enough volume to make it desirable to have multiple betting partners.
The top-level motorsports series in the United States — NASCAR and Indy Car — have established gaming partnerships that cover sports betting and fantasy sports. They are working with BetMGM, WynnBet, Caesars Sports Book, FanDuel and DraftKings.
Leagues also collaborate with technology entities to develop micro-betting markets, which leverage live data with historical results to generate predictions and odds.
Getting smaller leagues and series into the gambling marketplace can be complicated and takes time. They need to get the buy from the states — integrity is critical. Those sports properties with competitor rulebooks, performance criteria, anti-doping and gaming policies are good candidates.
One entity, ALT Sports Data, is working with non-traditional alternative verticals. They offer an integrated solution assisting in regulatory approval and data aggregation/integration into sportsbooks.
Several racing series, including MotoAmerica, Nitrocross, USAC, Formula Drift and NHRA, are working with them. This gives fans the opportunity to engage in fantasy games, gaming and betting for races and events.
Key initiatives are in place to educate stakeholders about sports betting to maintain the integrity through data intelligence, fraud prevention and monitoring of wagering patterns.
Like it or not, sports betting is here to stay. Will there be issues that arise? Probably so, just look at other sports. As long as there are two cars, there is a race — just pick a winner.
THIS ARTICLE IS REPOSTED FROM THE June 12 EDITION OF SPEED SPORT INSIDER
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