In 2019, one year after the repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, and one year into the big leagues’ realization that legal sports betting in the US provides a rare new revenue stream, Kenny Gersh shared a prescient observation at an analytics conference.
Then Major League Baseball’s executive vice president of gaming and new business ventures, now EVP of business development, Gersh described baseball as “a series of discrete events …. and each one of those events is a betting opportunity.”
Before same-game parlays were the rage and in-game betting a taste in the 40 US jurisdictions with legal betting, MLB executives realized that baseball’s laborious pace of play could be advantageous. Specifically when sportsbooks offered bettors more chances to wager on granular outcomes like at-bats or the results of innings.
Simplebet: MLB Betting Increased 100%
Five years later, even with the game’s pace of play accelerated by a pitch clock, bettors seem to have embraced Gersh’s analysis. A report from micro-betting provider Simplebet claims such, and much more.
According to an analysis from the company’s partners including bet365, Caesars, DraftKings, ESPNBet, and Hard Rock, MLB betting handle increased 100% in the first half of this MLB season as compared to the same period in 2023. Those sportsbooks handled more than $630 million in wagers, according to Simplebet, via almost 13 million bets, which 130% more than last year.
Baseball and golf maintain advantages on other sports as gambling fodder because their tempo can make latency issues inherent to television broadcasts less cumbersome. The PGA TOUR has invested heavily in capitalizing on micro-betting.
Simplebet: Micro-betting Stoking TV Ratings
Simplebet co-founder and CEO Chris Bevilacqua attributed the overall wagering jump to micro-betting, supporting a theory espoused by Tipico executives last season.
“As we saw last season with the NFL and NBA, MLB TV ratings and engagement across their media partners, FOX and ESPN were up significantly,” he said.
“There is no question that when fans engage during the game with an interactive, live in-play experience,” Bevilacqua continued, “the overall consumption of the sport increases.”
Simplebet noted increases in NHL betting in the early rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs this spring.
The Yankees’ Aaron Judge and Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani have been the most popular athletes for prop bets nationally, Simplebet reported, but regional tastes apply.
Last season, Reds star Elly De La Cruz was a prop-bet superstar in Ohio.
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