All major US sports leagues anticipating the SCOTUS ruling on PASPA

All major leagues in the US are looking forward to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruling on the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act  (PASPA), which would give a go-ahead to sports betting nationwide.

PASPA of 1992 may promptly be revoked if the SCOTUS rules as per the industries anticipations, acceding sports betting all across the country. Owing to which all four major leagues of sports in the US are getting ready to face the new scenario and are taking different approaches to the situation.

Apart from historically considering sports betting as a threat to business, the leagues have been in the act of educating players, and have started studying analytics that monitors betting data. They have also researched the partnerships and business opportunities that will surely create new revenue streams.

Furthermore, the NBA and the MLB have been getting involved with the lawmaking progress and – unlike the NFL and the NH L- have shared thoughts on their preferred model with lawmakers. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said: “We were happy to sit with legislators and look at the economics and talk about what is the best system.”

Bryan Seeley, MLB’s Senior Vice President, and Deputy General Counsel, told the Kansas legislature that legal sports betting would actually help integrity: “One of the primary benefits of a regulated sports betting industry would be increased transparency into what is currently a black box: the betting data in the illegal market,” he said, adding: “This would provide access to billions of points of data, which could be aggregated, analysed and acted upon in real time to protect games from outside influences.”

The NFL and the NHL have been a bit more discrete than the other two leagues. NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly commented that they “will be guided by what the Supreme Court ultimately decides” and added: “Things won’t change immediately or overnight. We will digest the opinion and make adjustments to our existing policies as necessary.”

Meanwhile, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said: “Regardless of the outcome, we will maintain our relentless focus on protecting the integrity of the game and ensure there are no improper influences affecting how the game is played on the field (…) If there are changes, we will work with regulators, operators, the clubs, players and others to ensure that our fans and the game and the people who play, coach and officiate it are protected.”