Major League Baseball announces support of online sports betting initiative in California

Major League Baseball on Friday announced its support of an initiative that would authorize online sports betting in California, becoming the first major sports league to take sides in the high-stakes battle between bookmaking giants and the state's powerful tribal gaming operators.

Two primary sports betting initiatives are on the November ballot. Proposition 26 would restrict betting to in-person only at tribal casinos and four horse racing tracks. Proposition 27 would allow online sports betting.

MLB is supporting Proposition 27, The California Solutions to Homeless and Mental Health Act. It is backed by a coalition of sportsbook operators, including DraftKings and FanDuel. A percentage of the revenue from Proposition 27 would be dedicated to fighting the homeless crisis in California.

DraftKings and FanDuel are among MLB's official betting partners. MLB, which has five franchises in California, has been an advocate of sports betting legalization since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992.

«As legalized sports betting continues to expand across the country, Major League Baseball remains committed to protecting the integrity of its games and creating a safe experience for fans who wish to wager on those games,» MLB said in statement released Friday. «Proposition 27 — the only measure on California's upcoming ballot that would authorize and regulate online sports betting — includes strong integrity provisions designed to help MLB carry out those commitments.

»The measure would, for example, (1) require sports book operators to notify leagues of suspicious wagering activity, (2) allow leagues to propose restrictions on betting markets that are particularly