The only way sports gamblers can properly place their wagers is if they have as much data as possible. Major League Baseball (MLB) had already signed deals with Sportradar and Stats Perform to push game and player statistics out to the gambling community, but a third company has now joined the mix. Swish Analytics, a San Francisco-based sports gambling tech firm, has signed on with the MLB to provide real-time official league data.
Swish announced the deal in a press release last week, stating that it had entered into a multi-year partnership as the league’s authorized data distributor for sportsbooks in the US. The arrangement gives Swish the opportunity to act as a supplier of official MLB real-time data feeds and will “further enhance Swish Analytics’ oddsmaking and gaming data services.” It also opens the doors to other collaborative efforts between the company and MLB to introduce “digital fan-engagement experiences.”
MLB Executive Vice President, Gaming & New Ventures Kenny Gersh sees the opportunity as added value for the league. He explains, “We’re thrilled to appoint Swish Analytics as the third Authorized MLB Data Distributor in the U.S. Including Swish as a distributor of our rich, reliable and fast data, in addition to their best-in-class oddsmaking and gaming-data services, will drive competition and new product innovations across the sports betting landscape. This will provide baseball fans with robust options to engage with games through sports betting and free-to-play experiences.”
Absent valid and accurate stats, placing sports wagers would be the same as blindly throwing darts at a dartboard. The outcome would be completely arbitrary with no systematic formula to achieve greater results. Despite most major leagues’ attempts to keep sports gambling at bay, unless they received a piece of the action, they are warming up to the idea and discovering that they can still get in on the activity without the necessity of an obligatory “integrity fee.”
Swish is as equally excited about the new arrangement as Gersh. Company co-founder Bobby Skoff adds, “Swish is driving product innovation in U.S. sports betting, and with this exciting expansion of our partnership with MLB, we’ll continue to grow our presence in the gaming market and ensure that our full suite of pre-match, in-play and at-bat betting products defines the next generation of engagement for MLB fans.”
