NHL, Las Vegas resort strike data deal for betting
NEW YORK — The NHL announced a multiyear agreement Monday to provide MGM Resorts International with data for use in betting, the second major U.S. professional sports league to strike a deal with the casino giant since the U.S. Supreme Court opened the way for expanded gambling last spring.
Las Vegas-based MGM is the league’s first official sports betting partner, just as it is with the NBA and WNBA. That deal was reached in July.
As part of the agreement, MGM gains access to proprietary NHL data that could eventually include puck and player tracking information once that goes through a testing phase. Access to that data will allow MGM to provide customized game details along with betting opportunities for U.S. customers where gambling is legally available.
The data will not be exclusive to MGM. The NHL is not getting a cut of gambling profits, but other terms were not disclosed.
“The new sports betting landscape presents a unique opportunity for fan engagement utilizing technology and data that are exclusive to our league,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said. “Fan engagement, technological advancement and innovation are paramount to our progressive approach and will be at the forefront of everything we do.”
MGM and other casino operators are moving aggressively to capitalize on the U.S. sports betting market, which is expanding after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in May that states could take sports bets if they wanted. MGM has made a series of significant moves, including the multiyear deal with the NBA and WNBA.
Bettman and MGM Resorts chairman and CEO Jim Murren said the NHL’s agreement differs from that with the NBA. “I’m led to believe by Jim that our deal is more encompassing and includes basic sponsorship that we have together,” Bettman said.
The deal will include promotions during the league’s marquee events, including the Stanley Cup playoffs, the All-Star game and the Winter Classic.
“We couldn’t be more excited to enter into this historic partnership with the NHL,” Murren said.
Bettman said player tracking will be implemented next season.
“That’s been the plan,” he said. “While we’ve tested it in some forms at the World Cup, that was 16 games in two weeks at one arena. Having to scale this for 1,271 regular season games in 31 arenas is a little bit harder.”
There are no plans to change the way teams report player injuries, which are often described only in generic terms like upperbody or lower-body. “Our players tend to play hurt,” Bettman said. “I’m not sure we have any interest in changing our reports. We’re comfortable with the way things are because it’s important to the well-being of our players. We don’t want them targeted when they’re playing injured.”
Bettman said the league and the NHL Players’ Association will split the “fixed revenue” generated by the partnership with MGM, as the collective bargaining agreement calls for. Bettman cited a report commissioned by the American Gaming Association that estimated expanded sports betting could increase league revenue by more than $200 million US.
Bettman also said the deal with MGM would not preclude teams from striking deals with individual sports books. This year, bookmaker William Hill struck deals to do promotional work and post odds at the home arenas of the Las Vegas Golden Knights and the New Jersey Devils.
NHL executive vice-president and chief revenue officer Keith Wachtel said being able to provide enhanced data and analytics to MGM will allow “some creative and unique things that don’t really exist in the sport right now.”
“The more data and analytics that a gaming operator can have, the better it will be in enabling them to set odds,” Wachtel told the Associated Press. “Whether or not they’re using the data for actual purposes of creating prop bets and things like that certainly is something [that’s possible.] But more importantly, they’re going to use it to be able to set odds and proper odds that they’re going to be able to create.”
In an email to the Associated Press, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said MGM “will access [NHL data] through our third party vendor, SportRadar. That may or may not change in the future.” SportRadar also provides NBA data.