FanDuel Sportsbook begins Live Stream of selected tennis matches

FanDuel, a unit of Irish bookmaker Paddy Power Betfair PLC, has the largest market share of all sportsbooks in the United States and will be the first to offer live streaming to its members.

The site will begin small term with live stream of selected tennis matches that bettors can wage on as well as German League soccer.

“We’re trying to build the most engaging and entertaining sports betting experience in the U.S.,” Niall Connell, general manager of the sportsbook at FanDuel Group, told reporters.

Live Stream only in New Jersey for now

The live stream service will only be available in New Jersey for now, but FanDuel said it hopes to offer it in other states as they allow mobile sports wagering.

And while it will only include selected tennis and soccer for now the hope is to include all of the US’s major sports — football, baseball, basketball and hockey — in the near future.

However most of the premium rights from North America’s major league sports are already locked into long-term broadcast deals agreed to before the US Supreme Court transferred power to make sports gambling legal in individual states last May. Now that the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB have partnered with national sportsbook, it is expected that sports bodies will eventually incorporate gambling firms into their media rights.

Being able to watch a match and bet on it from within a mobile betting app has been available in Europe for several years.

However, betting on the four “major sports’’ might still be a few years away in the United States. While that is something both companies said they might one day be able to consider, media rights for the big four U.S. professional leagues – football, baseball, basketball and hockey – are more difficult than in Europe.

Viewers will be able to see live odds displayed in one part of the screen, in a section that allows them to place a bet while never leaving the game’s livestream.

While FanDuel is the first site to live stream games, chances are they will not be the last.

TheScore Sportsbook in New Jersey

theScore.Inc, a sport media company, is expected to launch a sport book in New Jersey this summer. That will mark the first media group to integrate wagering onto its site.

Photo by Guilherme Maggieri