The next generation of gambling technology

by Ryan Rodenberg, ESPN

When Stephen Curry takes the floor Tuesday night in Game 3 of the NBA Finals, every facet of his game will be tracked by six strategically placed high-tech cameras in the rafters of Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena. How far did Curry run during the game? That’s easy to pinpoint. How much separation did he get from Matthew Dellavedova on that pick-and-roll at the top of the key during the Warriors’ first offensive sequence of the third quarter? That can be tracked too.

It is just the tip of the terabyte-rich iceberg of data collected by the cutting-edge SportVU cameras recently installed in all 29 NBA arenas.

Owned by Chicago-based STATS, the SportVU cameras owe their origin to a missile defense system, but their motion-tracking capabilities have been adapted for basketball. The data captured are utilized by the league and among individual teams in a variety of ways — scouting, injury prevention and game strategy are just a few examples. Two years ago, Grantland’s Zach Lowe offered up “Seven Ways the NBA’s New Camera System Can Change the Future of Basketball.”

But there is eighth way, and it involves gambling. It will be coming soon to your smartphone, tablet and laptop.

“Those NBA cameras are absolutely underutilized,” Tywan Martin, an assistant professor of sport communications at the University of Miami, told ESPN Chalk. “Just think if the NBA had a smartphone app that allowed small bets or real-time fantasy picks to be made based on [camera-generated data]. The league would see increased viewership and consumer engagement, especially in terms of the in-arena experience.”

NBA commissioner Adam Silver seems particularly bullish on the potential of real-time data and in-game betting. So does Mark Cuban, who said the league will “charge the casinos for information sources [and] video sources” and cryptically told Bleacher Report’s Jared Zwerling that “… as technology gets better, we will invent new things.” Wizards owner Ted Leonsis concurred in a recent SI.com interview: “People are now going to start to make wagers in a real-time way. You know, ‘I think he’s going to make a pass instead of take the shot.’ And you’ll be able to instantly move money back and forth. So it’s better to get in front of it.”

Rest is here