Last updated on July 11th, 2019 at 02:01 am
Major League Baseball announced a new rule change on Wednesday. In an ideal setting, the MLB reduces integrity risks by making teams submit lineups to the Commissioner’s Office first before releasing them to the public.
The goal of the new policy is to prevent the information from leaking. Some pay per head service experts think that the new rule relates to the league’s deal with MGM Resorts. In addition, the MLB signed a commercial deal with Sportradar, a sports betting data provider. According to the deal, MGM sportsbooks will gain access to official MLB data from Sportradar.
MLB said that they will publish the lineups to the public at the same time. However, teams need to submit their lineups first to the league before posting them anywhere else. Once they submitted their lineup, they can publish the information after fifteen minutes.
MLB Reduces Integrity Risks
In the past, teams can post lineups without notifying the league first. However, the new rule requires them to wait while the MLB sends the data to its business partners. The information is important clients of a bookie pay per head.
With the new rule, MGM, sportsbook clients, and media members will know the umpire assignments and lineups first. As a result, sportsbooks can adjust their betting lines and prices. The public will get the information as soon as the media partners post them.
Employees of Sportradar will have early access to the information from the MLB teams. However, this has proven problematic in the past when its head of esports allegedly used internal data for his betting activities.
The Commissioner’s Office told gambling news reporters that the MLB is updating its policies to lower integrity risks connected with sports betting. They added that the new policy is similar to what international sports leagues have in more developed sports betting markets.
