The National Basketball Association has been in negotiations with companies that offer sports betting in international markets including bwin.party and William Hill, according to a report in the sports website Bleacher Report.
The league is looking for an official partner in Europe’s regulated markets, which allows for betting on American pro sports.
The report cites unidentified sources.
“The NBA has seen the success that English Premier League soccer clubs have had with sports betting operators, and they’re following that same model,” a source with knowledge of the discussions said. “They’ve seen the naming rights and the size of those deals, and they understand that it’s an opportunity to open up another revenue stream overseas, in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”
The news come after NBA Commissioner Adam Silver came out last year in favor of regulated and legal sports betting in the U.S.—a radical change of pace from the pro league’s traditional stance against sports betting. Silver said that regulated sports betting could be a major revenue producer and increase interest in the league.
It’s clear that the league’s new approach to sports betting has support from some team owners.
“It’s pretty simple—just look around the world to see where betting is legal,” Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told Bleacher Report. “That’s what we will be doing, and then as technology gets better, we will invent new things. Something that is also important: The NBA is in more countries where betting is legal than where it is not.”
NBA officials declined to comment on the report.
The international agreement is expected to be finalized later this summer for the start of next season as a multiyear, multimillion-dollar sponsorship deal, the report said. It would include cross-platform branding on the NBA’s European broadcasts and the sports betting company’s sportsbooks.
