Free streaming of minor league baseball games in 2023?
A little more than a month ago it was announced that starting this year that minor league baseball games would be available to watch as a part of MLB.tv in 2023. The minor league games would be included in your purchase price and could be viewed on your television through the MLB app on your smart tv. For those who had interest in watching games on their television this was a blessing. But if you weren’t already planning to subscribe to MiLB or MLB.tv then that announcement didn’t mean much. This week news came out that Bally Sports had worked out a deal to have all available minor league broadcasts for free on their Bally Live casino app.
The New York Post is reporting that the broadcast rights for all 120 full-season teams to Bally for an undisclosed amount of money. What’s interesting with that is the fact that not all 120 teams have video broadcasts available. Or at least they didn’t last season and when MLB’s announcement came through about MiLB.tv being included with MLB.tv this year they noted that not every team had it. Perhaps it’s simply an overall deal in case the holdout teams decide to give it a shot down the line. Or hopefully it’s a sign that they will be getting it sooner rather than later.
This won’t begin when the regular season does. The New York Post is reporting that it will begin on April 15th. There will be no local blackouts according to the report.
While the games will be on a “casino” app, you will not be able to bet on minor league baseball games or any parts within the games themselves. You can, however, participate in “free contests” where you can “win” points that can be of value in other aspects of the app where you can bet on actual things with real money. There are reportedly already 750,000 people with the app, and while they aren’t all going to be tuning into the minor league baseball games, it’s a pretty big number of people who already have the app and could stumble onto some free baseball.
For those who are actually looking for the ability to watch more minor league baseball games and don’t want to shell out the money for MiLB.tv or MLB.tv, this could be a more annoying but cheaper option.
