DraftKings Sportsbook isn’t directly aligned with the Arizona Diamondbacks for Arizona sports betting purposes. That doesn’t mean DraftKings won’t have anything to entice D-backs fans to check out its sportsbook app, though. In fact, it might have something that its competition in AZ doesn’t.
On Friday, DraftKings and Major League Baseball announced an expansion of their existing partnership. One possible by-product of that development is baseball fans in AZ being able to watch their local MLB team in action right in the DraftKings app.
DraftKings MLB game feed coming to the app
DraftKings is now a “co-exclusive” sports betting partner of MLB. Before Friday, DraftKings was an official daily fantasy partner of MLB, but their collaboration didn’t explicitly involve sports betting. There’s more to this just some new words, though.
DraftKings and MLB will collaborate on a new “Bet & Watch” feature within the former’s app. Details are few about what exactly that will entail right now. A press release did say the content will include at least one MLB game. The release did not state which game would be the first to get this treatment.
The information suggests Bet & Watch will be an alternate broadcast mode, only accessible to DraftKings app users who have an “active and open” MLB.com account. Those accounts are free. DraftKings is coming to Arizona for sports betting through a partnership with TPC Scottsdale, pending regulatory approval.
The broadcast could resemble BetCast that NBC uses for its PGA coverage in partnership with PointsBet Sportsbook. Analysts discuss and highlight live odds movement and prop bets as the action moves along. Could the first Bet & Watch game be an approaching Diamondbacks game? It seems just as likely as a game featuring any other team right now.
Could the DraftKings app be a new home for D-backs games?
Which game is featured first will likely depend on how soon the product is ready and what game MLB is able to share in such a fashion. MLB’s broadcast contracts govern streaming rights and make live streaming of games subject to blackout restrictions.
That’s why MLB.TV subscribers in AZ can’t watch live streams of D-backs games. Speaking of MLB.TV, that’s also a part of this extension. DraftKings will aid MLB in producing new betting-focused content for MLB.TV users in the future as well.
As far as whether DraftKings will start regularly streaming MLB games in its app, it’s too early to tell. It isn’t out of the realm of possibility. Google has been a streaming partner of MLB’s for three seasons now, re-upping its contract annually so far. This season, Google offers 21 MLB games available to stream live for free on YouTube.
There’s nothing to stop DraftKings – or one of its competitors – from bidding for a similar or smaller package of games next season. North American sports leagues and sportsbooks have been kicking the tires on this already. BetMGM Sportsbook offered live streaming of several NHL games in its app earlier this year.
If such a deal for MLB games with an AZ sportsbook does emerge, it could feature some Diamondbacks games, as contract terms allow. At this point, the bulk of those games will still only be available for live viewing on Bally Sports Arizona.
For certain, DraftKings is devoting more resources to live sports content as a customer engagement tool. MLB has also fully embraced sports betting to the same end.
