Shakedown Fees

The messenger with this new need, Sports Handle has heard, has become the Switzerland-based Sportradar itself. The business has advised certain Nevada sportsbook operators concerning the new fee at the NBA’s directive.
Sources say Sportradar approached multiple sportsbook operators that have obtained the organization’s gambling data feed named Betradar, also used it to access the NBA data feed, together with the new terms before the start of the NBA playoffs.
Around the same time, Sportradar, doing the bidding of Major League Baseball, told certain sportsbooks they will want to fork over a”royalty” of 0.25 percentage of wagers taken on MLB contests for entry into the league’s official feed through Betradar, sources said. These discussions remain ongoing.
“What I have heard, and individuals are reluctant to go on record, is that the leagues are demanding this to get the official Betradar data feed, you finally have to pay a quarter percent of handle,” said Robert Walker, Director of Sports Book Operations for Nevada-based bookmaker USBookmaking. “I’ve discovered that the leagues, that would be the NBA and MLB, want a charge for in-game wagering data, along with the existing fees”
Walker previously ran a few of the largest sportsbooks in Nevada for example those at the MGM Mirage and for Boyd Gaming.
“My sources inform me the demand is coming from the data supplier, Betradar,” Walker explained. “I don’t know if the leagues really reached out themselves. I think that they’re strong arming Betradar, who is coming back and saying this is what we must get.”
The NBA, MLB and Sportradar didn’t respond to Sports Handle’s request for comment for this story.
By way of history, the NBA, in lockstep with MLB, has lobbied state and national lawmakers since January 2018 for that which was initially called an”integrity fee” — a charge which would call for state-licensed sportsbooks to pay expert leagues a 1 percent off-the-top cut of all legal sports stakes on every individual leagues’ games. At present, both the NBA and MLB are requesting for 0.25 percentage and calling it a”royalty” instead or simply”compensation.”
Thus far, no nation has obliged the leagues’ request. Nevertheless this week,Tennessee became the first state to pass a law (Governor Bill Lee will leave it unsigned and let it become law) that comprises a”data mandate” requiring, with a few murky language, that licensed books purchase”official league data” to power any in-play betting markets it could offer.

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