With the inaugural Grand Slam Monitor (GST) season simply over a month away, the league made extra headlines Tuesday going in opposition to the established order in observe and discipline. The league, based by four-time Olympic champion Michael Johnson, introduced it should companion with betting service Stats Carry out to carry playing to the forefront of competitors to attract a wider viewers.
In response to the announcement on X, Johnson mentioned he’s excited to be altering the sport to carry sports activities betting to athletics.
The variety of occasions followers have tweeted at me saying @GrandSlamTrack ought to have betting, and I couldn’t reply! However in the present day we announce! 📣 We’re altering the sport!!! https://t.co/TuqppcWo5g
— Michael Johnson (@MJGold) February 25, 2025
Athletics is comparatively new to the betting world, and outdoors of followers with the ability to wager on winners of Abbott World Marathon Majors, the chance to guess isn’t obtainable in lots of sportsbooks. Causes for this embody late submissions of starter lists (lineup playing cards for racers) and structural points, equivalent to the game’s lack of TV presence.
Steve Gera, president of Grand Slam Monitor, mentioned in an interview with Sportico that they noticed the high-interest degree in playing on the Paris 2024 Olympics. “For those who go and also you have a look at everybody from DraftKings and FanDuel and past, even the sportsbooks in Vegas… loads of them took bets on the Olympics, and it did effectively,” mentioned Gera.
In comparison with the standard observe and discipline meet, the place a number of disciplines happen concurrently on the identical venue, GST plans to function one race at a time. Johnson believes this format offers a chance to amass the most important viewers attainable for every race—each for followers and sports activities bettors.
“We sit up for setting a brand new commonplace for our sport with Stats Carry out’s intensive community of trusted media and betting companions, eye-opening know-how, and their true ardour for the facility of sport to unify and entertain,” mentioned Johnson in a press launch.
Stats Carry out is a sports-AI firm fashioned in 2019 by the merger of research firm Stats LLC and sports-media agency Carry out Content material. The corporate at the moment has partnerships with the Premier League, La Liga, the WTA, plus FIBA Basketball. The way it works is GST will license its information on racers’ performances to Stats Carry out and its media companions. Stats Carry out will deal with the integrity of Grand Slam Monitor’s information and the betting product whereas promoting the info to sportsbooks on Grand Slam Monitor’s behalf.
Whereas embracing sports activities betting can carry considerations of competitors manipulation and harassment of athletes, GST believes it should carry alternatives to athletics and profit the publicity of the athletes. “That is what skilled sports activities do,” Gera mentioned. “They make the most of all of the alternatives to construct fan bases … and in addition to create a platform the place the athletes will receives a commission extra in the long run.”
At the start of February, GST introduced a streaming media rights deal with Peacock and NBC Sports activities. The league will even broadcast weekend races on the CW Community. Every Slam will span three days, and Peacock will stream all days dwell, offering unique protection of the primary day of competitors. Along with Peacock, The CW Community will broadcast the Saturday and Sunday occasions dwell.
Grand Slam Monitor’s inaugural roster options 48 Racers, together with prime observe athletes from across the globe, competing in opposition to 48 Challengers throughout 4 Slams in Kingston, Jamaica; Miami; Philadelphia and Los Angeles, beginning April 4-6. The star-studded lineup contains 400m hurdles world-record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, triple Olympic gold medallist Gabby Thomas, British distance star Josh Kerr and Canadian Olympic medallist Marco Arop.