PGA Tour golfer Dustin Johnson and MLB slugger Shohei Ohtani. (Jared C. Tilton :: John McCoy/Getty Images)
Monday, Sept. 9, 2019 – A roundup of some of the key sports technology news you need to know, including SportTechie’s own content and stories from around the web.
- The PGA Tour has expanded its relationship with IMG Arena to include ShotLink data distribution rights to sports betting operators in North America. IMG Arena, the betting data collection arm of IMG, signed a multi-year deal in November to become the PGA Tour’s exclusive distributor for sharing official scoring data with international betting operators. The expanded deal into North America will see the launch of a PGA Tour-backed sports betting product that will let fans place live in-game wagers. The product is expected to be available worldwide in legal betting markets by early next year, according to the PGA Tour’s press release.
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- Major League Baseball has expanded its deal with YouTube to stream Tuesday’s Los Angeles Angels-Cleveland Indians game in Japan, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand. First pitch is scheduled for 7:07 p.m. PT and the game will stream on MLB’s official YouTube channel for free. In April, MLB signed a deal with YouTube to broadcast 13 games exclusively during the second-half of the season but Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan and Japan were not originally part of that package according to SportsPro Media. The expansion means Japanese fans will be able to stream Angels slugger Shohei Ohtani live in action.
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- The French Tennis Federation has sent invitations to technology companies that might be interested in powering its OTT streaming service. France’s national tennis body expects FFF.TV to launch before the end of this year. Interested companies must submit their offers by Sept. 15. The FFF.TV platform will focus on promoting French tennis content outside of the country’s top-tier competitions. “You see lots of tennis on television but ultimately it’s just the big tournaments. The role of a [national] federation is also to show the sport from across the country, youth tennis or tennis clubs’ stories,” the FTF said, according to SportBusiness.
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- Fox Sports launched its free-to-play sports prediction game on Saturday ahead of the first week of the NFL season. The Fox Sports Super 6 mobile app allows fans to predict scoring outcomes for both college football and NFL games to potentially win up to $250,000 in cash prizes. The app is available across the U.S., except Washington state, and can be downloaded via the App Store and Google Play. Fox anticipates adding NBA contests to the prediction game starting in October, as well as other sports. Fox also launched its mobile sports betting product, Fox Bet, in New Jersey and Pennsylvania last week.
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