We put together a 'real' health and safety protocol for our players: Premier Lacrosse League Co-Founder

The Premier Lacrosse tournament will take place on July 25th. Paul Rabil, Premier Lacrosse League Co-Founder joins Yahoo Finance’s On The Move panel to break down the upcoming season and weigh in on the outlook for the sports industry.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: One of the sports about to return from lockdown is pro lacrosse. Dan Roberts has more with his Business Blitz. Dan.

DAN ROBERTS: All right, thanks, Julie. Yes, it's PLL. And it plans to come back on July 25. We've got Paul Rabil here, who is co-founder of the league and also plays on one of the teams. Thanks for coming on, Paul.

PAUL RABIL: Thanks for having me, Dan.

DAN ROBERTS: So let's talk about the return plan, because we're watching all these sports attempting to come back after lockdown. And every sport is kind of doing it differently. You guys are going to play all the games in your championship tournament in Utah, I believe in one stadium. Tell me about how did you land on Utah?

PAUL RABIL: Yeah, well, we put together first in April a COVID-19 medical committee that consisted of an infectious disease specialist and internal medicine docs. That was really important, because our plan was to create a quarantine fan-less model. But we needed to have a real health and safety protocol in place.

So we put together a 106-page doc. We have a four-prong beginning at home COVID testing phase. It goes into three more tests on site. And then Utah was decided on based off of fewest cases, case trends. The other location we were looking at was Florida.

DAN ROBERTS: Got it. And you know, we're watching all these leagues. Of course, some have come back. You know, NASCAR is up and running, PGA Tour. But NBA is planning to come back. We've got the players in the bubble. It's been very interesting to watch the NBA bubble social media chatter and kind of see what's going on there.

Similarly, MLS is now playing. And I believe their cases have really gone down, although they had two teams drop out and have to stay out of the tournament. So are you watching those different leagues and how they're doing it? And is there any that you think is doing it right, any kind of warning signs or red flags you see from the other leagues that are attempting to form a bubble that you're kind of taking away for PLL?

PAUL RABIL: It's a great question. And we're conversing with all league owners and commissioners. And everyone's comparing and contrasting notes. I think the assumption is that there will be positive cases. So what are the social groups, is a term we use medically to make sure that groups are parsed out, such that if there is an infection, the show can go on, and it can be isolated and treated pretty quickly.

We have 17 social groups. Seven of them are teams. And the rest is op's, NBC production, and so on. I think the general practices have as many COVID tests from a logical standpoint as you can to ensure the safety. There's an implicit commitment that's made between players in sports or customers at retail that the organization is doing their job from a medical health and safety standpoint.

And that's why we have multiple tests throughout, and we're having all the PPE appropriate and contact tracing throughout the entire thing. And it's 20 games in 16 days, so it is more condensed than the NBA or the MLS.

DAN ROBERTS: Paul, you and I have talked since you started this league. We've had you on quite a few times. And of course, we're interested in the business progression of PLL. You guys had your inaugural successful season. And now I guess this will be your second season. You've got a broadcast deal with NBC. Today you guys had some news about the business, which is a sports betting partnership with Draft Kings.

So obviously, people will be able to bet on the games. Tell us a little about how that works. I mean, does Draft Kings just flip a switch, and now they have betting for PLL? Or does that require your buy in? Does that require NBC's buy in?

PAUL RABIL: Yeah, well, there's a lot that goes into sports betting. It started a couple of years ago at the national level, where the government gave the responsibility on a state-by-state basis. Now there's 22 states that have allowed through passing bills sports betting. And then there is another dozen that have a bill in place.

You have to first go through what's called the state regulators for approval. And then you meet with the AGOs, which are the gaming operators. And Draft Kings is one of them. Then they set the line. So they make an investment, and they do propositional betting and so on. Then the network gives clearance. So there's a lot of parties in place. You have Betting Integrity Services that monitor athletes, teams, the betting markets across the board.

And so for us, when we started the league in 2017, we looked at pro sports at a very macro level distribution, sports betting, asked the NFL, asked the NBA, asked the EPL. And we got our network partner with NBC, and then we began the road to sports betting. And we're really excited about doing it with the market share leader in Draft Kings.

DAN ROBERTS: You guys, during this time, had the chance to catch a lot of new fans, because so many sports are not back. I mean, personally an example for me, I'm watching NASCAR races now. I was never a NASCAR fan before. And just weirdly, because it's on, and there's something to watch, I have watched every NASCAR race since they came back May 17.

Is there anything you guys are going to do differently or talking to NBC about doing differently with the broadcast to try to keep those new fans? Because a lot of people who have never watched pro lacrosse might tune in and watch a game. How do you make sure they stick around and they become PLL fans?

PAUL RABIL: Well, we've always felt like it's got to be an incredible production and a great broadcast experience. And like hockey, lacrosse is pretty intricate. If you don't know the game, it's difficult to follow the ball. We changed the ball color in year one to optic yellow, which is the cover color of the tennis ball.

We're incorporating technology called tag board, where fans at home can engage and see their engagement on the broadcast through social media. We're also going to have celebrities, what we call to box in. They're going to virtually show up like they did on the match to commentate with our NBC commenters and booth. And we're doing all these different things to innovate.

But that's for the core fan. The net new fan is going to come in through sports betting and just wide programming. Of our 20 games, 14 of them are on television. That's NBC and NBC Sports. Our first eight games in a row are on TV. And our first two are on NBC, the mothership, which is in 118 million homes. So that's also a way to just capture a bunch of people who haven't seen lacrosse before.

DAN ROBERTS: All right, that'll be me, and that will be a lot of other people. I hope it goes well.

PAUL RABIL: You haven't watched yet, Dan? Come on.

DAN ROBERTS: I've watched some clips on social media. But I'm going to be watching the games now.

PAUL RABIL: There you go.

DAN ROBERTS: So wishing you guys well. I hope the tournament works out. Paul, thanks for joining us.

PAUL RABIL: Thanks for having me, as always.