Report: Bally Bet Parent Gets Minor League Baseball Rights With No Bets


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Bally Bet

The parent company of Bally Bet sportsbooks is reportedly still spending, this time on the streaming rights for minor league baseball.

Major League Baseball owners sold minor league streaming rights to Bally’s for an undisclosed price, the NY Post reported Tuesday. Those rights include 120 teams spanning from Single-A through Triple-A.

The deal comes as Diamond Sports Group is going through the bankruptcy process to eliminate more than $8 billion in debt. Diamond operates 19 Bally’s Sports-branded regional sports networks, which were seen at one point as a crucial part of the Bally Bet customer acquisition pipeline.

Bally’s did not respond to LSR‘s requests for confirmation.

Bally Bet will not offer betting on games

Surprisingly, the deal does not include integration into the Bally Bet app. That is because, according to the Post, not offering betting on the minor league games is part of the deal.

Bally Bet is live in six states. While Iowa and New York do not allow betting on minor league baseball, its other four states do:

Instead, the games will be broadcast on the Bally Live app, which includes free-to-play games, streaming for other sports and chat rooms for each channel.

Bally Live could offer Bally Bet credits

While there will be no betting on the games viewed in the app, there will still be opportunities to possibly earn betting funds.

Bally Live offers Bally’s Rewards points for various items, including watching a stream for 10 minutes, inviting friends, and staying on the app for an hour. Free games like Baseball Bingo will also offer opportunities to win those points, which can buy gift cards to various retailers like Amazon.

There is a chance those rewards could be converted to betting credits for Bally Bet, the Post reported.

Previous Bally purchases deemed ‘mistakes’

Bally’s has not made the best financial choices in building out its sports betting product, according to its new leader. Robeson Reeves took over as CEO after Lee Fenton stepped down amid “unacceptable” online results.

The company recorded a $390.7 million non-cash impairment during the fourth quarter because of daily fantasy sports site Monkey Knife Fight and its Bet.Works platform. Monkey Knife Fight shuttered for good in February.

“We’re not going to make the same mistakes we made previously, so we’re looking at all adoptions to [grow] in the most profitable way,” Reeves said. 

Bally’s is also no longer a sports betting partner of the New York Yankees, LSR has learned.

Deal better for MLB than Bally’s?

This agreement should get more eyes on minor league baseball than last year, according to numbers cited by the Post.

Last year, the only way to watch those minor league games was through the MLB‘s At Bat app for an additional $29.99 fee. Minor league games will be available through the At Bat app for no extra cost in 2023 through the all-teams subscription.

There were 40,000 users of MLB At Bat in 2022. That compares to the 750,000 monthly online actives Bally’s has, according to the Post.