Horizons Spring/Summer 2019

Data Processing Unlike fantasy sports contests where entry fees must be placed prior to the beginning of a contest, sports betting allows contestants to place bets at any point during a sporting event. This could be during any inning, period, quarter, half or overtime. Since bets can be placed at any time, operators have to focus on making sure their systems are able to process and provide data to contestants in realtime and pay out funds as events are completed for continued betting opportunities. Operators may be able to accomplish this on their own, but others may need assistance from third-party technology support organizations. These third-party technology support organizations can help make sure data and player funds are secure, the platform is operating as designed and transactions are processed quickly.

In the second half of 2018, MGM entered into two partnership deals with three professional sports organizations, allowing the MGM sports book access to live data. The MGM entered into a multi-year agreement with the NBA and WNBA in July and the NHL in October. Both partnerships give MGM direct data feeds to each organizations’ statistics during live sporting events.

These partnerships give MGM an advantage because MGM is able to process and provide data quicker to

contestants prior to placing bets, display more detailed statistics about players and events and even gives the MGM future opportunities to receive unique league data such as live player and equipment tracking (once testing has been completed).

2018 Sports Betting Data by State

State 1

Handle 3

Handle Per Person 4

Hold Percentage 5

DELAWARE

$84,300,000

$126

11.0%

MISSISSIPPI 2

$115,300,000

$57

7.8%

NEVADA

$5,004,283,439

$2,636

6.0%

NEW JERSEY

$1,246,400,000

$190

7.5%

PENNSYLVANIA

$17,580,000

$2

14.3%

RHODE ISLAND 2

$682,000

$1

10.7%

WEST VIRGINA

$73,540,000

$5

12.8%

1 New Mexico’s sports betting data is not publicly available at the time of publication. 2 December sports betting data for Mississippi and Rhode Island were not publicly available at the time of publication. 3 Handle is the total amount of wagers placed for sports betting in 2018. 4 Handle per person is the total handle in 2018 divided by the state population legally able to place a sports wager. 5 Hold percentage is the amount of handle retained by operators after winnings have been paid out in 2018.

Spring/Summer 2019

29