Just in case anyone was getting comfortable with the progress being made with regulated US sports betting, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his Republican colleague from Utah, Orrin Hatch, sent a curveball in the direction of the nascent sector in late August.
Schumer, the senior senator for New York, cited his status as a fan of both the New York Yankees and the New York Giants as one reason to go public with his concerns over sports integrity in the wake of the Supreme Court decision regarding PASPA.
“My priority in the wake of [the striking down of PASPA] is making sure the integrity of the games we love is preserved, that young people and those suffering from gambling addiction are not taken advantage of, and that consumers that choose to engage in sports betting are appropriately protected,” he said in a statement.
There was much in the full statement that was non-controversial: the need for information sharing to root out corruption, for instance, and requirements for appropriate player protections and a betting ban on sports participants.
But these likely weren’t the reason why the American Gaming Association (AGA) opted to go immediately on the attack, suggesting that previous federal oversight of sports betting had been an “abject failure for 26 years”, with the only thing to show for it being a “thriving illegal market with no consumer protections and safeguards”.
“New federal mandates are a nonstarter,” the AGA added for good measure and it is easy to identify the more contentious issues raised by Schumer and Hatch.
For instance, Schumer suggested that there be a requirement for betting operators to share betting information with not only the regulators, but also the sports leagues and sports governing bodies. Then there were the provisions requiring all bets to be settled using “official league data” and the proposal for restrictions around which bets can be allowed, to be determined by “the league or appropriate governing body”.
Political footballs
Schumer’s interjection into the debate around sports data and sports betting highlights the simple fact that regulated sports betting remains a controversial issue, not least for the sports leagues and governing bodies, both of which remain major actors within the debate.
Not surprisingly, all the major bodies took the opportunity of the Schumer and Hatch initiative to let it be known they were fully behind the proposals.
“As legalised sports betting spreads across the states, there is a need for consistent, nationwide integrity standards to safeguard the sports millions of fans love,” said a statement from Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Professional Golf Association (PGA). “We strongly support the legislative framework outlined by Senator Schumer and we encourage Congress to adopt it.”
Also issuing a joint statement were the National Football League (NFL) and the National College Athletic Association (NCAA). “We applaud the leadership demonstrated by Senators Hatch and Schumer in supporting federal legislation to protect the integrity of our games following the Supreme Court decision,” the two bodies said.
“Core federal standards are critical to safeguarding the sports we love, the millions of athletes across the country who play these games at all levels and our fans.”
Speaking to iGaming Business, Dan Spillane, senior vice president for league governance and policy at the NBA, is keen to emphasise that what is being talked about here is an overlay on state regulations rather than a full-blown effort to legislate for sports betting nationally.
“We regard gambling as something that has always been dealt with at state level and we don’t want to change that,” he says, before adding that the sports still “want a seat at the table” when it comes to discussions at state level.
A federal role
The official status of data is just part of the equation. “It’s important,” Spillane says, but it’s only one of many issues, including data sharing, cooperation, consumer protection, age limits and more.
None of this comes out of the blue. Andy Levinson, senior vice president for tournament administration at the PGA Tour, is keen to stress that, for nearly a year, various sports bodies and leagues have been speaking publicly about the need for betting operators, regulators and the leagues “to work together to create the best possible regulatory system”.
In this respect he namechecks the recent deal between the NBA and MGM which “demonstrates that a leading betting operator understands the importance of protecting the integrity of sports competition and ensuring that the markets they offer are based on accurate, real-time information”.
Spillane is keen to point out that the deal with MGM is important because it’s with an “established and well-respected operator”, a comment which at least points to common ground. More than that, the NBA already has an ongoing deal with sports data supplier Sportradar for distribution outside the US, and Laila Mintas, deputy president at Sportradar US, makes it clear that organisations such as the NBA are well aware of how sports betting has developed further afield.
“We have been working with the NBA for many years, addressing issues around sports data and betting integrity,” she says. “We see the task in the US as one of education and guidance. As with some of the Schumer and Hatch proposals, there is much that already forms the basis for regulated territories in Europe and elsewhere regarding the relationship between betting operators and sports bodies.”
This is a view echoed by Levinson at the PGA, who agrees that various of the leagues — including the PGA itself — have already been engaged in “public discourse” on the issues. “All domestic leagues share common interests in protecting the integrity of our competitions, safeguarding consumers from misinformation and eliminating the black market that currently exists in the US today”.
The last point is important. “This remains early days for regulated sports betting in the US,” says Mintas. “We are still in the stages of helping the leagues better understand the betting sector and also vice versa. The model for the US will be different than it is in Europe, and indeed each individual state market will vary, just as it does in Europe. But still the examples are there for how sports and betting can work together and we are confident solutions can be found that will satisfy all stakeholders.”
One such example is fan engagement, something that was touched upon by NBA commissioner Adam Silver when announcing the MGM deal. He suggested the collaboration would result in “the best possible gaming and entertainment experience for consumers through the use of accurate, real-time NBA and WNBA data, and our collective efforts to maintain and enhance the integrity of our games.”
The benefits are also touched upon by Levinson, who says the leagues are aware of how betting can bring further fan engagement: “The PGA Tour recognises that sports betting, if regulated properly, will introduce new audiences to our competitions and our athletes, which is part of the reason we have been publicly engaged on this issue for quite some time.”
The sports betting debate will widen out to include more states in 2019 and the position of the leagues and sports bodies will be crucial to how the various discussions progress. More than one respondent for this article suggests that it is merely the “first minute of the game” for sports betting in the US. Clearly, positions are far from being set. But still, the field is in motion and that will mean an interesting next few years for the sports and the betting sector.
Scott Longley has been a journalist since the early noughties, covering personal finance, sport and gambling. He has worked for a number of publications, including Investment week, Bloomberg Money, Football First, eGaming Review and Gambling Compliance. Scott now runs his own editorial consultancy, Clear Concise Media, and writes for a number of online and print titles.