The NBA and multinational company Sportradar are close to a six-year$250 million dollar deal that gives the company and data analytics firm Second Spectrum rights that include the following, per Bloomberg’s Scott Soshnick.
Selling official league data to betting houses, data analytics to teams and the development of a streaming product.
Using these data, gambling houses can pay big money for the most accurate and fast information during NBA games. It benefits the company by keeping the bettor for longer time periods, which creates more bets and the house makes more money. The NBA joins the NFL, MLB, and NHL as sports leagues that use Sportradar as their official data partner.
Even though sports betting is illegal in 46 states, NBA commissioner Adam Silver approves of government regulated sports betting across a federal level. Also, Washington Wizards owner Ted Leonsis, who invested in Sportradar was attracted to the company because of the experience they posses with sports betting.
These data can be used as assets in outside markets, especially China. China has a huge market for basketball, where 300 million people play the sport. In the US, Sportradar is using the data to build business with various tech and media companies. They also supply data for FanDuel, a daily fantasy sports company.