Industry Reports

MGM Resorts International Becomes First Sports Betting and Resort Partner of NHL

by Paul Brooks

The National Hockey League (NHL) is joining forces with the American global hospitality and entertainment company MGM Resorts International. Under the multi-year partnership which was announced on Monday by Gary Bettman, the Commissioner of the NHL, MGM Resorts will receive data for use in sports betting.

Mr. Bettman cited the landmark ruling of the US Supreme Court in May which lifted a long-year federal under which sports betting was officially forbidden across the country. NHL Commissioner Bettman explained that the addition of sports betting to the US gambling landscape is a ā€œunique opportunity for fan engagementā€ by using both data and technology which are exclusive to the National Hockey League.

The deal would not bring any share of the gambling profits to the NHL, which has made MGM Resorts International the first official sports betting and resort partner of the league. It follows a similar deal between the NBA and MGM which was announced in July 2018.

As mentioned above, as an official sports betting partner of the NHL, MGM Resorts International will be given the chance to offer many of its services and products to the Leagueā€™s fans via the variety of media platforms and events.

ā€The More Data and Analytics Available, the Better Oddsā€

The partnership agreement will provide the American global hospitality and entertainment company with the right to access to special enhanced NHL proprietary game data which will be provided by the Leagueā€™s tracking systems which are being currently developed. This, on the other hand, will allow the operator to provide its customers with various NHL game insights and further unlock specialized interactive fan engagement features.

As explained by the executive vice-president and chief revenue officer of NHL, Keith Wachtel, to The Associated Press, the more data and analytics a gaming operator is able to get, the better, as the odds it enables will be more adequate.

So far, the casino and gambling operator has made a number of significant moves to get better access to professional sports leaguesā€™ data and stats, including a multi-year partnership agreement with NBA and WNBA that was announced in July. The deal made the NBA the first major professional sports league in the US which inked such a deal with a gambling operator.

As Casino Reports previously revealed, the major professional sports leagues had required to receive a so-called ā€œintegrity feeā€ as their rightful portion of the money wagered on their games after the legalization of sports betting. Sports leagues had shared their belief that they have the right to a certain portion of the wagered amount of money because without them there would not be sports to bet on.

At first, professional sports leagues have required a 1% share of the sports bet, but they later reduced that percentage to 0.25%. For the time being, no states where sports betting is already legal have agreed to the ā€œintegrity feeā€.