The NFL has long taken a sharp stance against sports gambling. It’s rejected any suggestion it loosen its opposition position, and has ruled out ever playing a game in Las Vegas, where betting on sports is legal.
So how does that stand mesh with the league choosing a company to distribute its stats that derives about half its business by supplying sports data to betting houses?
Sportradar is as well known overseas for providing sports data to gaming entities and offering what it calls “integrity services” to leagues — alerting them when suspicious results occur that might suggest match fixing — as it is for traditional stats distribution. Overseas, when a data company acquires a license to distribute sports stats, that includes the right to sell those stats to gaming houses. As a result, the rights are commonly far more valuable overseas.
Sportradar says its gaming operations will stop at the U.S. shoreline, and none of the NFL data will be supplied to gaming houses. The NFL makes a similar point.
“The NFL content rights are specifically housed within [the U.S. arm of Sportradar],” said Vishal Shah, NFL vice president of media strategy and development. “None of our content or data will be redistributed to any gambling related [entities].”
