Sports Betting is the topic at SportTechie 2019
The SportTechie 2019 State of the Industry Conference started yesterday. The keynote speaker was Rob Manfred, Commissioner of Major League Baseball. In addition to promoting the possibility of speeding up the game by having a 20-25 second interval between pitches, Manfred gave his view of what relationship MLB should have with gaming operators and regulators. Manfred hinted that MLB would be making a bigger push into eSports this year. “Strategically, we see eSports has kind of been a weak spot for us,” he said. “It is a real priority for us going forward. It is tough to say more than this but I’m pretty confident that in 2019 we will have a nice announcement in that space in terms of platform-based games.”
The panel about the Advances in Sports Betting Technology included Scott Butera, President of Interactive Gaming with MGM, Scott Kaufman-Ross, SVP, Head of Fantasy and Gaming with the NBA and Seth Young, CIO with PointsBet. This distinguished group gave their thoughts about what the collaborations of Sports Betting and tech means for fans and teams.
Zach Leonsis participated in the “Forecast the Future” segment. This is a recurring feature of this conference. Leonsis is SVP, Strategic Initiatives & General Manager with Monumental Sports & Entertainment. Monumental is already setting the bar with telecasts of Washington Wizards games that are gambling focused. In January, NBC Sports Washington Plus offered a “free to play predictive gaming contest”. The contest featured prop bets based on the performances of the players and teams during the game. This is a subtle way of introducing Sports Betting and gauging the popularity of certain interaction.
Today the conference concludes with panels on fan engagement and the traditional sports viewing experience where social media is now common in all pregame and post-game shows. There is an interview with Jane Weeton, Director of Business Development from Twitch. She will describe how eSports has captured the imagination by having player and fan engagement. The streams of an eSsports telecast can reach a generation that has moved from traditional media to online. The NBA 2K League has a broadcast deal in place with Twitch. Get more information on Twitter by using the hashtag #SOTI2019.