X, formerly Twitter, to integrate sports betting onto platform

The phrase "tweeting through it" will take on a whole different meaning for sports bettors.

X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, has partnered with MGM's sports book to integrate betting stats into its platform. On Friday afternoon, Fortune's Kylie Robison reported that the social media company entered the partnership with the hotel and casino giant for an undisclosed amount.

MGM is one of the more frequent advertisers in sports television through its gaming arm, Bet MGM. It competes in a rather crowded market with DraftKings, FanDuel, ESPN Bet and others. Yet this deal with X gives MGM a direct line to the frenzy that is Sports Twitter, especially for real-time action.

Robison explained that the timing of the deal is critical for X, with the Super Bowl two weeks away:

"This comes at an important moment for both companies with the NFL Super Bowl only two weeks away. Live events is where X’s strength lies. The platform garnered a record-breaking 28.4 million tweets during the broadcast in 2015 for instance. However, after X owner Elon Musk cut most of the company’s staff, the platform has been plagued by outages during high-traffic events such as the Super Bowl — it even crashed during last year’s halftime show. Ahead of the big event in 2023, another outage occurred, and Musk emailed staff to stop developing new features, “in favor of maximizing system stability and robustness, especially with the Super Bowl coming up,” as Fortune first reported."

Since Elon Musk bought the social media company in 2022, X has lost significant value. His brusque management style led to massive layoffs, frequent technical problems and an alarming rise in hate speech. 

During the NFL regular season, a report found that several of X's sponsors had advertisements posted on the accounts of prominent white supremacists. In response, some companies such as Disney had suspended or ceased campaigns on X, prompting Musk to criticize them as he continues to look for new ways to generate revenue. (The NFL said it was still committed to X despite calls to participate in a sponsor boycott.)

Whether this deal alleviates some of the financial pressures for X remains to be seen, but sports fans and the business world at large will keep a watchful eye to see if and how X rises to the occasion.