Friday, Aug. 16, 2019 – A roundup of some of the key sports technology stories you need to know, including SportTechie’s own content and stories from around the web.
- FanDuel has signed a multi-year deal with Major League Baseball to become an authorized gaming operator for the league. FanDuel can now use official data collected by MLB’s Statcast system to power the company’s online and retail sports betting products. The partnership also gives FanDuel rights to use official MLB branding and team logos. According to FanDuel, in-play wagering makes up 50% of its sportsbook business. “With an enhanced betting experience, sports fans are watching more baseball as they have a stake in the game,” said Kip Levin, president & COO at FanDuel Group, in a press release. Rival DraftKings also signed an official betting data deal with MLB last month.
- The Dallas Mavericks will accept Bitcoin payment for game tickets and online merchandise purchases. According to a team announcement, service provider BitPay will process all Bitcoin transactions. The Mavs are the second NBA team to accept cryptocurrency after the Sacramento Kings signed a deal with BitPay back in 2014. “We want [to give] our fans who would like to pay with Bitcoin the opportunity to do so. BitPay allows our global fans to seamlessly make purchases with the Mavs,” said Mavericks owner Mark Cuban in the press release.
GAMIFICATION: NBC Sports Experiments With Betting-Lite During NFL Preseason
- NBA stars missed games due to “load management” 3.5 times as often last season compared to the 2012-13 season, according to analytics startup Fansure. The company has created algorithms to predict the likelihood of a player sitting based on factors such as a player’s rest history, days off heading into a game and the quality of opponent faced. Fansure offers reimbursement packages for fans who purchased tickets to a game, in the event that a star player sits.
- Amazon Alexa will now report local high school football scores from thousands of games across the country, through a new collaboration with ScoreStream. Users can ask Alexa to receive real-time updates on various games being played in their local area. The ScoreStream mobile app is a crowdsourced platform that provides scores, photos, and video from over 13,000 youth games per week, plus the ability to chat with other fans.
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