As Ohio lawmakers consider the sports betting legislation House Bill 194, members of the Ohio House Finance Committee recently discussed with Professional Golf Association officials the issue of sportsbooks’ use of official league data.
PGA Senior Vice President of Tournament Administration Andy Levinson, also speaking for the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball, said, “Betting is requiring more complex data and we have built the technology and infrastructure to collect that data. It takes an immense amount of technology and manpower to collect accurate and real-time data. We spent an enormous amount of money building these systems.”
Levinson stated leagues have been supplying sports data for years and have the right to profit from that and any other services they provide. He noted the data would have to be purchased for in-game betting, not for straight bets.
Lawmakers said the leagues already have an obligation to enforce the integrity of their activities and they have been doing that for decades. State Rep. Dave Greenspan asked Levinson, “If the altruistic purpose is integrity of the game and not the dollar bill, would you be supportive of that amendment to offer the data for free?” Levinson responded that the leagues would not support that.
Levinson also responded negatively to state Rep. Jim Butler’s question: if leagues will receive more viewership through legalized gambling—meaning more advertising revenue—wouldn’t be enough of an incentive to not require the purchase of official league data? Levinson said viewership would not increase immediately and it would take time for leagues to benefit from any additional ad revenue.
