MLB has signed up with the American Gaming Association’s (AGA) “Have a Game Plan” campaign to promote responsible gambling. The partnership begins with the postseason.
The campaign features social media posts, online banner ads and a 30-second public service announcement that will air in-stadium in states with legal sports betting. MLB also will expand its relationship with the non-profit National Council on Problem Gambling, in which it joins with the group’s leadership council along-side the NFL, FanDuel, MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment and others, according to Sports Business Journal.
As far as the AGA campaign, MLB unites with the NHL, PGA Tour, NASCAR and UFC, a handful of pro teams and all the leading U.S. sportsbooks, including DraftKings and BetMGM. The league will work to create baseball-themed PSAs during the offseason, similar to the PGA Tour’s “Know when to lay up” and NASCAR’s “Know when to pit” campaigns. The AGA also will offer turnkey PSAs, consulting and education services for clubs that wish to do so.
“A couple of years into this system, we’ve had some pretty solid (responsible gambling) and problem gambling initiatives under way,” said MLB Vice President/Gaming & New Business Casey Brett. “But we’re really looking to the future and how we want to best equip ourselves to make sure we’re continuing to make progress in the space. For us, this is setting us up on a path where we are going to have way more marketing capabilities across all our channels to promote responsible gaming messaging. It’s going to give us the opportunity to create more sticky and cohesive messaging.”
The AGA has worked with the league on advertising guidelines, and the NCPG, which advised MLB when it was developing free-to-play games, Brett said.
“Both these groups have pretty phenomenal partners in their portfolio,” he said. ”So the time for us was just right. We’ve done a lot, and this is going to expand it even farther.”
