“There is a need to shrink the illegal overseas betting market and bring new revenue to Japan’s sports industry. We are also paying attention to the potential of the sports promotion lottery that the government is supervising, and we recognize that (the addition of professional baseball) is an issue that should be considered,” said Giants owner Yamaguchi Toshikazu (president of Yomiuri Shimbun Group Inc.) in his speech at the Sports Ecosystem Promotion Council, a general incorporated foundation held in Tokyo on November 15th. Roughly speaking, the appeal is that professional baseball should be added to the government-approved sports promotion lottery, following soccer’s J-League and basketball’s B-League. The foundation was established on July 18, 2023 for the purpose of researching international trends in the sports industry using digital technology. Thirty major private companies are participating, including Mizuho Bank, Itochu Corporation, SoftBank, Rakuten, CyberAgent, and KDDI. These are a group of companies aiming to get a piece of the action in the expansion of sports lottery. An analyst from a consulting firm explains: “The aim is to seize the ‘black market profits’ of US bookmakers. They also bet on professional baseball, which is banned in Japan, and this has proven surprisingly popular. Since the day and night schedule in the United States is reversed from Japan, people can enjoy betting on baseball from the morning. According to the foundation’s estimates, 5 to 6 trillion yen is bet on sports in Japan each year. This is why Owner Yamaguchi is calling for professional baseball to be added to sports lotteries.” It’s no wonder he’s worried. Japan’s government-approved sports promotion lotteries (Toto, Big) had sales of 120,358,010,000 yen in fiscal year 2011. Although it was the highest amount ever, it was still a world away from the US betting market. However, if professional baseball were to be added to the mix, sales would likely explode, as would subsidies to sports organizations. By the way, in Japan’s sports promotion lottery, 50% of the sales are paid out as dividends, and the remaining 50% is divided equally among each sports organization, local government, and the national treasury. As a result, approximately 20 billion yen in subsidies were given to sports organizations. However, if professional baseball is added, sales are expected to reach 3.2 trillion yen, the same as the Japan Racing Association (JRA), and subsidies are estimated to swell to 528 billion yen. (Omitted) “The cross-party Sports Diet Members’ League is preparing to submit a bill to amend the Sports Promotion Lottery Act and add professional baseball to the list of sports in next year’s regular Diet session. According to the plan, it will be implemented from 2026, and the professional baseball lotteries of Japan, Taiwan and Korea will be aligned, and the synergistic effect will be immeasurable” (Diet member’s secretary) The addition of the “Baseball Toto” to the sports promotion lottery has been confirmed with the Giants’ initiative, and with this as a source of funds, “team expansion” and “advancement into Asia” are steadily progressing. Amid concerns about the colonization of American Major League Baseball, Japanese professional baseball has begun a serious counterattack. Read the full story at the source.
It would be better to stop it because match fixing would become widespread. In Korea, match fixing became widespread and professional sports in general died.
>The aim is to take a cut of the “black market profits” made by US bookmakers. It’s just a pretense to introduce it. Even though they know that it’s not going to happen even if they do it officially lol.
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