In case you have any remaining doubt regarding the longterm sustainability of the budding relationship between the legal sports betting market and professional sports leagues, today’s news from FanDuel Sportsbook and the NHL should just about eliminate it.

As part of a new partnership with IMG Arena, the popular online legal sportsbook will stream up to two regular season games daily via its app in states where online sports betting is legal. Among those states are Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Indiana. Bettors who carry an account balance or have action on the game will be able to follow along live.

You can sign up with FanDuel Sportsbook and grab a $500 risk-free bet by clicking here.

Deals between pro leagues and sportsbooks aren’t a new development. Three leagues (MLB, NHL, NBA) have official gaming partnerships with MGM Resorts, while the NHL (FanDuel, William Hill) and NBA (FOX Bet, FanDuel) also have additional partnerships.

The NFL has a DFS partner in DraftKings Sportsbook, a casino deal with Caesars, and a betting data deal with Sportradar, which allows for the distribution of the league’s data to legal sportsbook operators.

The news that FanDuel will be streaming NHL games, however, marks the first time bettors will be able to consume game action, statistics, data, and betting odds all in the same place.

While these streams will be traditional in nature and not incorporate any additional sports betting elements beyond simply appearing in the FanDuel Sportsbook app, it would not at all be surprising for a deeper fusion to occur between leagues and leading sportsbooks in the coming years (maybe months).

On a local scale, NBC Sports Philadelphia has integrated sports betting into alternative Sixers broadcasts in which the panel dissects game flow and its relation to both pregame and evolving in-game betting markets. From this viewpoint, the broadcast is, at times, clumsy and has not yet fully grasped how to master the concept–but it’s ambitious, and, most certainly, ahead of a larger trend. Ultimately, alternative betting-centric telecasts, along with more natural sports betting integration into primary telecasts, are certain to increase in frequency.

In fact, XFL broadcasts incorporate betting lines into visual packages as announcers make casual conversation regarding both in-game and futures odds–a once unthinkable concept for football broadcasts.

While each league will move at its own pace as it assesses how to best financially capitalize on the exponential growth of legal sports betting in America, it’s not so far-fetched to envision concepts such as whip-around coverage (think NFL Redzone) saturated with sports betting elements, further traditional live stream app integration, or dedicated sports betting telecasts.

This, people, is the future of sports.

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