Contrary to belief, the PBA and the MPBL are not rival leagues and the two basketball entities proved it when their key officials met for a common goal.
PBA Chairman Ricky Vargas, TNT’s representative to the PBA board, and league commissioner Willie Marcial met with MPBL CEO and founder Manny Pacquiao and league commissioner Kenneth Duremdes in their all-out war against illegal gambling.
Also on hand to witness the meeting was Chaye Cabal-Revilla, wife of Congressman Strike Revilla, and team owner of the Bacoor Strikers of the MPBL.
The two leagues talked about plans of eliminating game-fixing while closely monitoring the players, the coaches, team officials and the referees.
Senator Pacquiao had warned players, teams and referees about game-fixing in the MPBL and he is now working closely with the PBA in using a platform to do real time analytics to correlate calls, scores, performance and bets.
According to Duremdes, there will be more constant communication between him and fellow Commissioner Marcial, while stressing that the two leagues are no rivals, just what many fans of both leagues are claiming.
“Ang usapan namin talaga focused more on illegal gambling,” wrote Duremdes in an online interview shortly after the meeting. “But this is a good step towards a fruitful partnership between the two leagues.”
Cabal-Revilla is excited on the joint initiative of the two leagues in their fight against illegal gambling happening during games.
“It’s a collaboration between MPBL and PBA that they are not competing leagues. Both leagues have the same objective of promoting basketball as a sport to develop athletes, provide livelihood to the players, coaches, staff and their families. But we’re also coordinating and sharing info to help fight the issue of game-fixing,” wrote Cabal-Revilla.
