NBA makes deal to sell official data to MGM Resorts for betting use
5:30 Premier Champions, Marcus Browne vs. Lenin Castillo, light heavyweights, at Uniondale, N.Y.
Premier Champions, Devon Alexander vs. Andre Berto, welterweights; Peter Quillin vs. J’Leon Love, super middleweights, at Uniondale, N.Y.
10:00 Sergey Kovalev vs. Eleider Alvarez, for Kovalev’s WBO light heavyweight title; Dmitry Bivol vs. Isaac Chilemba, for Bivol’s WBA light heavyweight title, at Atlantic City, N.J. 7:30 COLLEGE FOOTBALL: S Brandon Snyder is leaving Iowa as a graduate transfer and sophomore OL Tristan Wirfs will be suspended for the Hawkeyes’ season opener after getting charged over the weekend with intoxicated driving. … Tennessee OL Trey Smith, who missed spring practices while dealing with blood clots in his lungs, has been cleared to play this season. However, Smith will be held out of contact until he comes off blood-thinning medication, likely sometime around midAugust.
CYCLING: Vincenzo Nibali will return to training in a few days after undergoing back surgery following a crash in the Tour de France. Nibali broke his 10th vertebra July 19 on the climb up to Alpe d’Huez when a fan caught a camera strap on his handlebars.
GOLF: Australian golfer Jarrod Lyle has opted not to seek further treatment in his long fight against leukemia and will receive palliative care at home, his family announced. Lyle, 36, was first diagnosed with the disease as a teenager and suffered recurrences of it in 2012 and ’17.
NBA: MGM Resorts has reached a deal with the NBA to become the official “gaming partner” of the league and WNBA. Financial terms were not disclosed. MGM, which owns the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces and is a partner in the NBA Summer League, will pay the NBA for official data to use in determining outcomes of various bets. … The Bulls re-signed G Ryan Arcidiacono, who split time between Chicago and the G League last season. NFL: The Vikings and WR Stefon Diggs have agreed on a five-year contract extension, moving Diggs into the NFL’s top 10 highest-paid players at his position. The new deal is valued at $72 million plus an additional $9 million in possible incentives.
NHL: The Bruins will retire Rick Middleton’s No. 16 on Nov. 29. Middleton, who is the third-highest goal scorer in franchise history, will become the 11th Bruin to have his jersey number retired. … Blackhawks D Gustav Forsling will miss the start of the season because of a right wrist injury. The 22-year-old Swede, acquired in a 2015 trade with the Canucks, had surgery Tuesday and the expected recovery time is 14 weeks. … NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said on the latest episode of “PodcastOne Sports Now” that the league wants a cut of gambling profits if its intellectual property, data or video from games are used.
TENNIS: Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki pulled out of the Citi Open in Washington because of an injured right leg hours before she was to face Anhelina Kalinina. Wozniacki hasn’t played a match since losing in the second round at Wimbledon on July 4 . ... Defending Citi Open champion Ekaterina Makarova lost her first-round match to Ana Bogdan 7-6 (2), 6-3, while No. 2 seed Sloane Stephens, the reigning U.S. Open champion, moved into the second round with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Bethanie Mattek-Sands. … In men’s play at the Citi Open, Andy Murray tested his surgically repaired hip against 80thranked Mackenzie McDonald and earned a 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory.
NEW YORK — The NBA and WNBA will now share official data with MGM Resorts International, a major win for the leagues as they prepare for the anticipated growth of sports betting across the country.
The Las Vegas-based casino giant will pay the NBA for that data to use in determining outcomes of various bets. The NBA’s stance has been that getting accurate stats to bettors is critical so players know what they’re betting on and so casinos will know when to pay out, and MGM Resorts is the first casino to make an arrangement with the league for those numbers.
Terms of the deal announced Tuesday were not disclosed, other than it’s a multiyear arrangement.
“I know the value of data,” MGM chairman and CEO James Murren said. “To be able to have the official NBA data for sports bettors around the world is very valuable. I was willing to, and I’ve paid for that.”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who has been talking with Murren about such an arrangement for weeks, said the leagues believe they’re getting adequately compensated for the data.
“It’s a leap of faith on both sides,” Silver said. “It’s a deal moderate in length where I think we can both step back and assess as we go and see, ‘Is it working? Is this deal fair? Are we providing the consumers with the right type of experience?’”
It’s the first such deal between a major U.S. league and a casino.
“We understood the value of our marks, of official designations,” Silver said. “But I think then in terms of the data we’re providing, we have a sense of the magnitude of the current business and a sense of where things may go over the next few years. And I’d say we generally tried to approximate in a sense to come up with what we thought was fair compensation.”
How MGM will get data remains unclear.
NBA stat data is distributed globally by Sportradar, which sends it to media outlets, broadcasters and betting outlets outside the U.S. — but not inside this country, at least for now. With the start of preseason games still about two months away, there’s plenty of time for those matters to get worked out.
“What this relationship entails is access to official data for the many casinos that MGM operates,” Silver said. “It’s the use of the NBA’s intellectual property and as we’ve discussed before we’re very focused on integrity provisions to protect our fans, to protect those who choose to engage and bet on the NBA.”
MGM will be an official casino partner for the league, but will not have exclusive rights to the data. The NBA still can, and likely will, try to make deals with other casinos.
The deal also won’t stop other casino companies from offering wagers on NBA games. sports that