Japan proposes launch of baseball-themed sports lottery

Japan is hoping the country’s baseball teams don’t object to allowing a new baseball-themed sports lottery product.

On Thursday, Japanese media reported that a meeting was held Wednesday between the Nippon Professional Baseball Organization (NPB) and the representatives of the league’s 12 pro teams regarding the launch of a new baseball-themed lottery product.

At present, Japan’s Sports Promotion Lottery is limited to a football-based product run by the government-backed Japan Sports Council. The football lottery generated sales of nearly ¥112b (US$1b) in fiscal 2016.

The football lottery involves a pools-style set-up in which either the lottery player selects his or her favored teams, or the (oddly more popular) Toto-Big version, which relies on a computer to randomly select teams to emerge as winners in their respective matches.