Fanatics, Guardians open sportsbook at Progressive Field

Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Guardians and e-commerce sports retail giant Fanatics have joined forces to open a sportsbook at Progressive Field.

The groundbreaking venture represents a landmark move in the MLB, aiming to capitalise on the burgeoning US sports betting market.

To this point, Major League Baseball had not hosted any physical sportsbook spaces in its stadia.

The partnership between the Guardians and Fanatics could well set a precedent for future collaborations between sports teams and betting companies.

The move to integrate betting within the MLB infrastructure complements the broader national trend in the United States.

Accessibility to legal sports betting in the USA has considerably grown since 2018, when the Supreme Court wiped out the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) – the ruling that had previously outlawed sports betting in all but four states.

This legal milestone has since given states the autonomy to decide their course concerning sports betting.

It has also paved the way for sporting leagues and franchises to strike up partnerships with licensed sportsbooks, with major media brands such as Fox and ESPN also getting in on the action.

The Fanatics sportsbook at Progressive Field may serve as a considerable threat to established Ohio sports betting brands such as DraftKings and FanDuel.

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