Minor league baseball has made its way to the Michigan sports betting menu.
In addition, baseball fans can settle for an innovative contest involving some Michigan teams.
You can make some picks on the Pit Spitters, Growlers and Bombers, for example. But bets on the Whitecaps, Loons and Lugnuts will have to wait.
(A side note: You just have to love the names of minor league baseball teams.)
Michigan recently removed ban on minor league baseball bets
The Michigan Gaming Control Board recently updated its Sports Wagering Catalog to remove the outright prohibition on subordinate developmental leagues, spokesperson Mary Kay Bean told PlayMichigan.
That doesn’t mean you can make minor league baseball bets — yet.
(Update: In July, the MGCB approved betting on the Northwoods Baseball League, an independent league we’ll have more information on below. This was the first minor league baseball league to be approved in MI.)
“The MGCB will consider any approval requests for including such leagues on a case-by-case basis,” she wrote.
There is an MGCB committee that considers operator requests for a certain sport, league or betting market.
Some states already offer minor league baseball betting
As a new state for sports betting, Michigan is adding markets as it goes.
When sports betting opened briefly at the Detroit casinos in March 2020, you couldn’t yet wager on international club soccer matches or tennis.
Those markets were later added, as were more obscure offerings such as drone racing.
Some states have beaten Michigan to the punch on minor league baseball, as Triple-A games are available for wagers in Colorado, which added it this month. Indiana and New Jersey are also on board. New Jersey also approved wagers for the in-state High-A Jersey Shore BlueClaws and MLB Draft League Trenton Thunder.
Meanwhile, in Michigan, wagers are permitted on Major League Baseball, the KBO League in Korea, the Nippon Baseball League in Japan, the Chinese Professional Baseball League and the IBAF World Baseball Classic.
No Michigan wagers requested for affiliated MiLB leagues
No Michigan operator has yet requested wagers on the affiliated High-A Central league, which includes the Great Lakes Loons (Los Angeles Dodgers affiliate) in Midland; Lansing Lugnuts (Oakland A’s); and West Michigan Whitecaps (Detroit Tigers).
Nor have any operators requested markets for the four-team, independent United Shore Professional League in the Detroit suburb of Utica.
An operator has requested wagers on the Northwoods Baseball League, a 22-team summer college baseball league that includes the Battle Creek Bombers, Kalamazoo Growlers and Traverse City Pit Spitters. The league was approved for wagering in July.
Northwoods League has app
The Northwest League teamed with Chalkline for the NWL Lucky 7 promotion this season, giving fans a chance to win up to $100,000 daily.
Players can win additional prizes, the announcement says. But the chances of getting $100K are slim.
Wednesday’s contest required you to guess the correct winning team and correct amount of pitches thrown by the home team starting pitcher, total number of hits, players left on base, total runs, total strikeouts by the home team pitching staff and total walks for the game between the Madison Mallards and the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters.
Your chances of ending up on a betting platform’s database are much bigger.
Chalkline is a provider of real money games for conversion opportunities for operators and media companies. Notably, the app notes NWL Lucky 7 is “presented by William Hill.”
To find the contest, download the Northwoods League app in the Apple App Store or on Google Play. You can also find it on the league or any team’s website by clicking scrolling to the GAMING tab. You must be 21 to play.