NEW YORK – Fresh off signing his company’s third partnership agreement with a professional sports league, MGM Resorts International CEO Jim Murren emphasized his company’s focus on integrating sports betting under the larger entertainment umbrella.
Murren spoke Wednesday in a one-on-one interview format with sports business journalist Darren Rovell at the ICE Sports Betting USA conference.
On Tuesday, MGM announced a partnership agreement with Major League Baseball, making the casino giant the league’s first gaming and entertainment partner. The deal is similar to agreements MGM had entered into with the National Basketball Association in July and the National Hockey League last month.
In a sidebar, Rovell told the audience he was leaving his role at ESPN to take a new position at the start-up gambling network Action Sports, which had been reported by several media outlets earlier this week.
Speaking to a capacity audience, Murren focused on MGM’s desire for competition, saying that the company had been hoping for the repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act for years. The Supreme Court tossed out the 25-year-old law in May, opening the U.S. for legal sports wagering beyond Nevada.
“We were like a horse waiting at the gate,” he said. “We’ve been working with teams, with leagues, we’re establishing a headquarters for our sports betting enterprise, and we’ve been working with our digital platforms to create a holistic experience. It’s been a lot of fun.”
Murren said that MGM’s strategy behind entering these types of deals with the major sports leagues is to maintain a focus on integrity and inclusiveness.
“We look at sports betting as a portal to a total interactive experience,” he said. “Sports betting will be part of a portfolio of activities that customers engage in, whether it’s social gaming, poker, casino gaming, other forms of internet gaming. If you look at it that way, the universe is much broader.”
Under that philosophy, Murren said, having a relationship with the leagues is “critical.” In particular, he said, the integrity of the data is of paramount importance to both the leagues and to MGM.
Murren contrasted MGM’s approach with that of other gaming enterprises which have entered into agreements with individual teams. MGM has done a few of those as well – notably a deal with the NFL’s New York Jets.
Murren indicated that it was more important for MGM to work in concert with the leagues to “figure it all out” over the next five to 10 years.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen, but we know each other,” Murren said. “MGM has a long history with the NBA, a long history with the NHL, a long history with MLB.”
MGM has a very solid relationship with the NBA, Murren added. He mentioned MGM’s purchase of the San Antonio Stars WNBA team earlier this year, which moved to Las Vegas and was rebranded the Las Vegas Aces before the start of the season. The team played its home games at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.
“That negotiation (with the NBA) was very quick. We’re paying for the relationship,” Murren said. “When stuff comes up, we’ll figure it out.”
MGM is paying for the leagues’ data. Murren said that one of the reasons behind the financial “validation” – Rovell’s term – was that MGM is not interested in paying an integrity fee.
“We’re actually offended by that concept,” he said. “Our whole business model is based on integrity. We don’t feel we need to pay a fee to do what we do every single day. But we are willing to pay – and pay well – for data, and for sponsorship and co-branding.”
Murren said that the MLB deal has a particular emphasis on Japan, “which is a very important market for baseball and for MGM, as well. I am paying for that data, and I think I should. Ultimately, that will be a differentiator versus our competitors, particularly because in-game betting is going to be so popular… the latency of data is going to be the critical component.”
Rovell questioned Murren about MGM’s position on paying for data if the data isn’t exclusive.
“Don’t we want it to be unfair? We want to beat the hell out of our competition,” Rovell said. “So why do you say that?”
Murren said the ultimate choice is up to the consumer who chooses which sports book where to wager.
“We’re competitive people, Murren said. “Our technology, our government relationships are superior to everyone in our space. We’re going to have a very large market share. We want other people to do well. If there is a problem with one of our competitors, we’re going to lose. We’re only as good as our weakest competitor.”
Murren said that the NFL has not had as much of an “enlightened view” as the other three leagues and was unwilling to speculate about how long it might take for the league to change. He said, however, that several NFL team owners were very excited about the opportunity to enter into a partnership with MGM, like the deal with the New York Jets.
Eventually, he said, he thought that owners would “drag the league along.”
Murren said MGM plans to test gaming kiosks at its T-Mobile Arena, which is the home of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights. He said it would probably happen “within the year” at Knights games.
