Microbetting is the next hurdle for MLB pitch clocks after a successful spring

Welcome to the Winner’s Circle, a weekly column by Bet For The Win senior writer Prince J. Grimes.

MLB’s implementation of a pitch clock this season is off to a fantastic start.

According to a memo sent to clubs Wednesday, the average time of Spring Training games has been trimmed to 2 hours, 36 minutes, which is 25 minutes faster than Spring Training games last year. Players have adjusted to the timer, trimming their violations from 2.03 the first week to 1.03 the week prior to the memo.

The pitch clock was one of three new rules added this season to speed up MLB’s pace of play and create more action. It limits pitchers to 15 seconds between pitches when the bases are empty and 20 seconds with runners on base, and it’s working as intended.

Players seem to like it, managers are embracing it and fans are even getting used to it.

That leaves maybe one last hurdle for the pitch clock to jump before across-the-board acceptance: microbetting.

Microbetting is a form of live wagering where bettors can put money on individual moments of a game. Baseball microbetting — which can include results as rapid as ball or strike — exploded in popularity last season. According to Yahoo Finance, microbetting leader Simplebet facilitated $262 million in betting handle across the entire 2022 MLB season, which accounted for 25% of all live bets placed on Simplebet’s partner platforms.

Microbetting accounted for 40% of all baseball handle in the regular season and 43% in the postseason, Simplebet CEO & co-founder Chris Bevilacqua told SportTechie in October.

However, just as it seemed baseball might’ve captured a new audience — one with the potential to grow as sports betting legalization continues — the pitch clock rule threatens to slow that growth. Time is the biggest ally a microbettor could have when deciding what to throw money at. Now, they have less of it in Major League Baseball.

While baseball’s slower pace was an issue that needed to be addressed, that pace made the sport ripe for microbetting. A faster game could potentially turn people away from what appeared to be a burgeoning market. Especially considering the latency that exists between live action and television broadcasts or streams. If micro-betting wasn’t exclusively a market for people at the ballpark watching the action in person, it may be trending that way soon.

Of course, bettors will still have plenty of time to microbet on inning-to-inning results. It’s the specific pitch and at-bat results that may become a little strained.

My guess is the bettors who truly want a stake in those types of things will adjust in the same way the players have, and microbetting will continue to grow in popularity. Time will tell, and we’ll find out soon enough with the regular season set to begin Thursday.