NBA deal with MGM grand for exclusive league information (1 Viewer)

[bigmarc27]

http://www.espn.com/chalk/story/_/id/24245142/nba-first-league-betting-sponsor-deal-mgm

What are the positives / negatives here?  This seems like a very questionable move to me on the surface, hiding information from the public that could sway betting lines. I would have thought the play would be more transparency, not insider information.

 

[Insein]

Yea I can't see how this is legal. Insider trading in the stock market is the big taboo. I can't imagine giving a bookie insider info to an entire sports league creates a fair market.

 

[Long Ball Larry]

I can't imagine that they will really be giving any insider info.  I think that it is more like a branding/advertising deal.  I would suspect that real actionable info would be worth a lot more than $25 million over 3 years and eventually would be a horrible look for the NBA.  Of course, Dave Silver has been known to make certain questionable decisions in the past.

 

[bigmarc27]

I can't imagine that they will really be giving any insider info.  I think that it is more like a branding/advertising deal.  I would suspect that real actionable info would be worth a lot more than $25 million over 3 years and eventually would be a horrible look for the NBA.  Of course, Dave Silver has been known to make certain questionable decisions in the past.

$25m over 3 definitely seems like a drop in the bucket. I guess we’ll find out how important this is when the Lakers are a 12 pt favorite at the Bellagio, then the MGM posts a line of -3 an hour later and we find out Lebron has food poisoning. 

 

[Somebody]

PR-wise, it's an interesting move to get into bed with the company that is suing the victims of the mass shooting because they want to try to save money on law suits.

 

[Long Ball Larry]

$25m over 3 definitely seems like a drop in the bucket. I guess we’ll find out how important this is when the Lakers are a 12 pt favorite at the Bellagio, then the MGM posts a line of -3 an hour later and we find out Lebron has food poisoning. 

I certainly don't think that they are giving any MGM any info like that.  It says that they would share data analytics.  So the question is what proprietary stats does the NBA have that would be significantly useful to a bookmaker and how much of that is the NBA giving?  Or did they just agree on an API for sharing publicly available information, giving MGM the prestige without that much true competitive advantage in setting lines.

 

[bigmarc27]

I certainly don't think that they are giving any MGM any info like that.  It says that they would share data analytics.  So the question is what proprietary stats does the NBA have that would be significantly useful to a bookmaker and how much of that is the NBA giving?  Or did they just agree on an API for sharing publicly available information, giving MGM the prestige without that much true competitive advantage in setting lines.

That could be.  The first I heard about it was on the radio and they mentioned real-time injury reports that go to the league.  They could be talking out their ### though, who knows. 

 

[Long Ball Larry]

https://www.si.com/nba/2018/07/31/nba-mgm-resorts-partnership-vegas-sports-betting

This article says:

 the NBA and MGM Resorts, a sports betting operator, will now share data. It means the league will disclose valuable—and at times proprietary—information related to NBA players with a sports betting operator. That operator, in turn, will use this new information for a variety of purposes. One likely purpose is to diminish incongruities between different sources of player and team data used by MGM. Another potential purpose entails MGM configuring more advantageous betting lines.

but also that:

The NBA stands to gain from the MGM partnership not only from a marketing standpoint, but also from the vantage point of integrity. MGM will share with the NBA “anonymized real-time data.” This type of data will reflect player and team performance, and will be shared only after removal of any identifiable markers about relevant players and teams. The anonymized feature should help to safeguard player and team privacy (with a caveat discussed below). Meanwhile, the league can use the data to better detect any suspicious statistical phenomena connected to players, coaches and referees. Had the NBA obtained enhanced data while Donaghy officiated games, perhaps the league would have caught scoring discrepancies in games officiated by him.

It seems like the NBA's goals are twofold: extract some money out of gambling but also improve compliance and integrity.  It will certainly be interesting to see further reporting on this and any more specifics about what will be shared.

 

[Long Ball Larry]

That could be.  The first I heard about it was on the radio and they mentioned real-time injury reports that go to the league.  They could be talking out their ### though, who knows. 

according to forbes:

As part of the agreement, MGM Resorts will use NBA and WNBA data and branding on a non-exclusive basis, meaning information on injuries, when made public, will be to all media and gaming outlets simultaneously.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johndelcos/2018/07/31/nba-enters-controversial-agreement-with-gaming-entity-mgm-resorts/#65d65948132f