The English Premier League has offered its complete support to sports betting legalisation in the United States.
This was revealed by Adrian Ford, general manager of Football DataCo, official rights-holder for the Premier League and all professional football leagues in England and Scotland.
Sports betting is only legalized in the state of Nevada in the US. This is largely due to the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), a 1992 federal act which prohibited other US states from engaging in sports betting.
New Jersey is leading other states to challenge PASPA in court and the US Supreme Court is expected to rule on the issue by June.
New Jersey has the backing of the National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Baseball (MLB), and golf’s PGA Tour to challenge the current status sports betting in the US. In fact, both NBA and MLB have gone ahead to develop regulatory laws that would govern sports betting once it is approved by the Supreme Court.
The NBA and MLB and their supporters however have demands when sports wagering is ultimately legalized in all US states. Some of these demands include:
- Having sports betting operators use official league data
- Share customers data when required
- Pay integrity fee – a percentage of the sports betting revenues
- Enable leagues to determine or control what bet sportsbooks can offer
Accordingly, Ford says Football DataCo supports both NBA and MLB since they are coming up with a regulatory framework that works for all sports betting parties across the states. He added that the Premier League supports integrity fee since this will pan out to benefit the industry in the long run.
“When it comes to customers and integrity and really trying to provide the best experience, official data, backed by the leagues, is fact; you need a gold standard,” Ford said.
“Ultimately, the common goal – and it is easier said than done – must be to have a functioning, regulated, safe betting market that brings all the offshore money onshore for the good of the sport, for the protection of the players and presumably for the good of the states that are going to get tax revenues,” he added.
