Coming soon to a race track or casino near you – Major League Baseball, all tied up in a pretty big bow. It might not be as soon as you’d like but start saving your rent money. The legal bookies are waiting.
The bets you place will be courtesy of the United States Supreme Court, which in a 7-2 decision last week paved the way for all 50 states to establish legal betting on MLB, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League and the NCAA.
At least two of the leagues, MLB and NBA, have intensified their lobbying efforts to induce the states to create betting on their sports.
A bit of irony here. At the outset of this movement, all four leagues and the NCAA vigorously opposed the idea of legalizing sports betting, claiming it would undermine the integrity of their games.
They quickly relinquished that argument when they realized the amount of revenue that is involved. Estimates of money that is generated by gambling, mostly illegal, range from $150 billion to $400 billion annually. The estimates are not more precise because most of the money is wagered with bookmakers, who are illegal and prefer not to have the government scrutinize their work.
More irony: Legal betting comes to baseball, which banished Pete Rose 30 years ago for life for betting on baseball. The difference is Rose’s betting violated MLB’s most sacred rule. It will remain in place, and players will still be subject to it.
A half dozen or more states more eagerly anticipated the Supreme Court decision and are farther along the gambling road than other states. Brett Smiley, editor-in-chief of SportsHandle.com, reports that the states closest to being ready once the states can begin to do business are Mississippi, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Delaware and possibly Michigan.
Another person mentioned Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island as likely additions.
“We expect the number to grow, perhaps to 13 states,” a baseball official said. “It’s sort of a new world.” He said baseball officials have spoken to umpires and players about the development, players during spring training, umpires at their annual meeting.
“This is all about integrity and security,” he said.
Before this new game get much older, many more states are expected to jump into the free-money pool. After all, that’s what is. If current bettors opt to bet legally and the prospect of betting legally appeals to people who have been reluctant to bet with bookies, the revenue pool will erupt enough to send geysers shooting into the air.
Even before the prospect of legal sports betting became a reality, it made a major impact on the value of sports franchises. In the last six months of last year, the unattractive MLB Miami Marlins sold for $1.2 billion, the NBA Houston Rockets sold for $2.2 billion and the 49 percent of the NBA Brooklyn Nets that sold valued the team at $2.3 billion.
More recently, the purchase price of the NFL Carolina Panthers was $2.2 billion. The financial adviser to the Panthers’ owner was Steve Greenberg, a general partner at the New York financial firm of Allen & Company. His father, Hank, might have hit more home runs than the minor league son, but the son has done all right financially.
Besides attracting new owners and new bettors, the move to legal betting will require the addition of many new and different types of officials in adjunct positions. In MLB’s case, one of those men may be an old and very familiar executive.
A former MLB executive said Bob Bowman, the man who made baseball what it is today financially, a remarkable $10 billion industry, has talked to Peter Chernin, the former head of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, about possibly creating a company that would serve bettors as Bloomberg serves financial customers’ needs.
Bowman, who is considered a digital genius, is said to be in demand and has talked with several potential partners.
In 17 years with MLB, Bowman built the league’s Advanced Media entity into the darling of the digital world. In 2016, MLB sold controlling interest in Bamtech, a spinoff company, to Walt Disney Company for $2.58 billion.
However, late last year, MLB did not renew Bowman’s contract after years of accusations of abusive workplace behavior. On the other hand, he was different from many MLB executives. He was honest and also candid.
With legal betting invading the sports world, everyone in sports will do better. Owners will gain greater revenue with their share of the money gambled – MLB and the NBA have asked for one percent – and they will have to pay players higher salaries, try as the owners might to keep the additional revenue for themselves.
I wanted to talk to Tony Clark, the head of the players union, but Clark said the best he could do was an e-mail interview with all of the meetings and traveling he had scheduled. I reluctantly agreed to the e-mail interview:
Q: If betting on baseball is legally available to everyone (in states where it is legal), why shouldn’t it be available to baseball players?
As you know, MLB’s current rules permit Players to bet on non-baseball sports where such betting is legal. With Major League Baseball changing its historical position on gambling and baseball specifically, it does indeed beg the question as to whether or to what extent the rules that have reflected their past positions in regard to Players and club officials should be reconsidered as well.
Having said that, allowing Players to bet on their own games can raise competitive integrity questions. To that point, Players are simply treated differently from the general public.
Is betting on baseball available to members of players’ families (wives, brothers, sisters, parents)?
As of this communication, this point has not been discussed. However, with regard to family members, the historical view is that you have to be careful because a Player placing bets through a family member is effectively no different than placing bets of his own. This is an issue all parties will need to monitor as we discuss potential rules and rule moving forward.
What about players’ agents? Can they bet? Can they place bets for their clients?
Our Agent Regs prohibit betting on baseball and those regs are unlikely to change.
Are any major league rules negotiable, particularly those applying to betting?
This issue directly impacts Players about on and off the field. We expect that any new rules in this area or changes to the current rules will be negotiated.
I would like to have talked to a management official about this global change in the baseball landscape and tried for three days to reach Dan Halem, MLB’s chief legal officer, but no return call was forthcoming.