By Hilary Russ
NEW YORK, Aug 15 (Reuters) – Major League Baseball and FanDuel on Thursday announced a multi-year agreement that makes the sportsbook operator an official gaming partner of the U.S.
professional league.
It is MLB’s first partnership with FanDuel, a unit of Flutter Entertainment PLC. FanDuel already has similar agreements with the National Basketball Association and its Brooklyn Nets team, as well as the National Hockey League and its New Jersey Devils team.
MLB has previously partnered with MGM Resorts International and DraftKings.
A series of league partnerships with sportsbook operators have been made as regulated sports wagering spreads across the United States.
More states are legalizing betting after a U.S.
Supreme Court decision in May 2018 that overturned a federal ban in most places outside of Nevada.
Sports wagering now is up and running in 11 states, including Iowa, which launched live bets on Thursday.
In Thursday’s deal, FanDuel will be able to use official MLB data and logos in its online and retail sportsbooks.
Financial terms and the duration of the agreement were not disclosed.
The National Football League is the only major professional U.S.
league not to have named an official sports betting partner, although it announced on Monday that Swiss data provider Sportradar will distribute NFL game data to sportsbook partners internationally and monitor betting on football for integrity problems.
Sportradar already had been providing NFL play-by-play statistics and player tracking data to media outlets.
Because the U.S.
sports wagering market is new and untested, most official partnerships between leagues and sportsbook operators have tended to be no longer than a few years, industry sources have said. (Reporting by Hilary Russ; Editing by Bill Trott and Grant McCool)