The National Basketball Association has signed a partnership agreement with PokerStars parent company, The Stars Group.
The multi-year deal, a first for the Canadian online operator, which runs a remote sports book in New Jersey and has a betting license pending in Pennsylvania, gives it the league’s imprimatur in the United States and access to official NBA betting data with the right to promote the NBA and its trademarks and logos across its platforms, including PokerStars.
The NBA, in turn, will promote The Stars Group across its digital assets, including NBA TV, NBA.com, the NBA App and NBA social media platforms.
Matt Primeaux, The Stars Group senior vice president of strategy and operations, hailed the agreement for its “access to the NBA’s real-time data and intellectual property,” saying this “further enhances consumer confidence in our offering and acts as an official endorsement of our BetStars sportsbook offering here in the States.”
Scott Kaufman-Ross, head of Fantasy & Gaming for the NBA, called it a “dynamic partnership” that will “create authentic fan engagement while leveraging Stars’ global expertise to further optimize the fan experience.”
The deal in essence is the same as the partnership the league concluded this summer with MGM Resorts International, a landmark agreement which set the template for official partnerships the casino giant subsequently struck with the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball.
For years, the major pro sports league fought the spread of legal sports betting beyond Nevada. But the motivation clearly has shifted since the U.S. Supreme Court in May nullified a longstanding federal ban, in effect, throwing what was a multibillion-dollar underground industry into the open market. For the leagues the aim now is get maximum monetization out of their brands, their official game data and the rest of their intellectual property. For corporate gaming, access to the promotional value of those brands, along with the precious game data that will enable them to expand their product ranges, have emerged as major incentives as more states pursue legalization and new expansion opportunities present themselves.
Both also recognize a need to hedge their respective positions amid the possibility that the federal government may decide to intervene in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling with regulations aimed at preventing gambling-related corruption, a big part of which revolves around the issue of compensation for the use of official league data.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer of New York already has included the issue in his case for federal regulation, and the draft of a bill proposed by retiring Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah would require betting operators to settle all wagers using only “authorized” data licensed and provided by the leagues𑁋a la the MGM partnerships𑁋or by entities the leagues designate, such as Sportradar and Genius Sports, both well-known globally for their expertise in data services and security monitoring, and both of which have non-exclusive distribution agreements with the NBA already in hand.
As Kaufman-Ross put it, “We’ve been pretty consistent that we think the use of official data is very important for sports betting. Through using the reach and the influence that Sportradar and Genius Sports have in the industry, we think we’re in a position to provide widespread usage of that data. We also thought it was important that we create a competitive marketplace for that data. We really want there to be as many operators as possible using it, and to be able to tap into the expertise of both Sportradar and Genius will help us to do that.”
More than 75 international sports bodies use Sportradar to monitor suspicious activity, including the NBA and NHL, and earlier this month, NASCAR joined the fold, signing up the company to deploy its Fraud Detection System to monitor all races across NASCAR’s primary circuits.
“It is critical to be proactive in developing safeguards that protect NASCAR’s on-track product from any potential integrity threats,” said NASCAR executive Brian Herbst. “Knowing that our races will be monitored extensively, while also equipping our industry with the tools and knowledge they require, gives us peace of mind in being able to preserve the integrity of NASCAR as the U.S. wagering market continues to open.”
In South America, the NBA is expanding its reach into Latin America’s betting markets via a deal that names Uruguayan bookmaker Supermatch the league’s official gaming partner in that country.
The agreement calls for Supermatch, which also operates Uruguay’s La Banca national lottery, to promote the partnership in more than 6,000 retail locations nationwide and work with the league to cross-promote their brands across their respective online platforms.
The deal also provides Supermatch access to official NBA data and branding across its land-based and digital sports betting services and commits the partners to work together on integrity issues.
“Through this new partnership, our clients will not only continue to enjoy our gaming offers, but they will also get even closer to the action with the chance to win NBA prizes and unique NBA experiences,” said La Banca President Roberto Palermo.
The agreement is the second the NBA has concluded to date with gaming operators outside the United States. In November, the league joined forces with government-sponsored Française des Jeux as its official betting partner in France.
