Last year, baseball fans looking to watch Minor League Baseball games had to pay $30/month for MLB At Bat Live. This year, fans may get to watch those games for free.
The New York Post reported that MLB made a deal with Bally’s to stream MiLB games for free on the Bally Live casino app. Streaming begins on April 15, and there will be no blackouts “for home games.”
This move is a way to get games out to a wider audience while making content available for cord-cutters. While you do need to download an app, one that non-gamblers are probably not going to have, the games are free. The Post revealed that MLB’s At Bat app had about 40,000 paying subscribers, while Bally’s has 750,000 monthly online players. While not everyone on the app will be interested in watching Minor League Baseball, that’s a much bigger pool to try and maximize viewership. And that’s not including the people downloading Bally Live to watch games.
While MiLB games will be on a gambling app, Bally’s will reportedly not allow gambling on those games. Instead, Bally’s will have various contests and games that allow customers to earn rewards points and maybe bet on other things in the app.
The gaming company pays a rights fee to put its name on Diamond Sports RSNs, which filed for bankruptcy last week. Diamond Sports has the local rights for 14 MLB teams, and this reported MiLB deal isn’t affected by the Diamond Sports bankruptcy news.
[New York Post/Photo: @MiLB]
About Phillip Bupp
Producer/editor of the Awful Announcing Podcast and Short and to the Point. News editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. Highlight consultant for Major League Soccer as well as a freelance writer for hire. Opinions are my own but feel free to agree with them.
Follow me on Twitter and Instagram @phillipbupp