Sporting associations target Missouri following West Virginia defeat

on the heels of its defeat in West Virginia, Major League Baseball (MLB) has targeted Missouri, drafting a sports betting bill for the consideration of the states legislature.

The move comes just days after West Virginia's Finance Committee approved Senate Bill 415, which would allow sports betting at the states' four casinos, approving measures that would give said casinos a 27% cut of the money raised.

Members of the Finance Committee unanimously rejected a request from both the MLB and National Basketball Association to pay a 1% integrity fee back to the leagues that would cover compliance, enforcement, monitoring, investigations and education.

Efforts to legalise sports betting in Missouri have already begun, with two bills H2320 and H2406 both hitting the senate floor over the past year.

The MLB’s draft bill places regulatory powers squarely in the hands of the Missouri Gaming Commission and includes measures to combat problem gambling, while levying a 20% tax rate on operators and a 1% integrity payable to sporting associations.

It includes registration provisions to allow online or mobile operators to conduct betting in the state subject to a $10,000 application fee. A potential bone of contention in this legislation is the presence of clauses which give sporting associations the power to prohibit betting without first seeking the permission of the state.

The contentious clause states: “A sports governing body may notify the commission that it desires to restrict, limit, or exclude wagering on its sporting events by providing notice in the form and manner as the commission may require, including, without limitation, restrictions on the sources of data and associated video upon which an operator may rely in offering and paying wagers and the bet types that may be offered.”

The MLB Bill prohibits individuals connected with sports betting operators and any participants in or anyone connected to professional sports activities (.i.e. managers, referees, team owners and other connected individuals) from placing bets.

Any individual with access to sensitive information about the sport be it via a third party or data supplier and people attempting to act as agents for other individuals are likewise barred from betting.

It excludes third party data providers, unequivocally stating that all data regarding “statistics, results, outcomes, and other data relating to a sporting event that have been obtained from the relevant sports governing body or an entity expressly authorised by the sports governing body to provide such information to sports wagering operators”.

According to estimates published by the Legal Sports Report website based on data provided by Eilers & Krecjik Gaming, if 32 out of the 50 US states chose to legalise sports betting with provisions including a 1% integrity fee, this would net the MLB $480m per annum.

With other sporting associations potentially netting hundreds of millions of dollars in integrity fees if sports betting is legalised, its easy to see why the MLB and NBA are making such a big deal about sports betting legalisation.