A sponsorship deal between the new NHL team in Seattle, the Oak View Group and the Muckleshoot Casino holds potential for all sides as state lawmakers push to legalize sports gaming.
Muckleshoot reps gathered last month at the site of the $930 million KeyArena to announce the deal and offer a traditional land-blessing ceremony to signify the region’s tribal heritage. Auburn-based Muckleshoot becomes the official casino of the NHL team—which has not yet announced its name—and at the arena, where it will have a luxury suite, be the named sponsor of all power plays during hockey games and also have signage advertising its expanded gaming and resort amenities.
Conrad Granito, general manager of the casino, said the arrangement will help inform sports fans and concert-goers about its ongoing property expansion, including a new events center and 400-room hotel expected to be completed in conjunction with the KeyArena’s planned reopening in mid-2021.
But Granito, who expects the expansion to generate a 10 to 20 percent hike in the casino’s 12,000 to 15,000 daily customers, said the partnership could facilitate a future sports-betting arrangement.
“I think the partnership is one where you see a lot of tribes and gaming entities have partnerships either directly with teams or directly with leagues,’’ Granito told the Seattle Times.
Muckleshoot also plans a separate deal with the Seahawks, but more on the tribal side than its money-making casino arm. The Seahawks already have a sponsorship agreement with the Snoqualmie Casino allowing use of the team’s logo for promotions, while the Mariners have one with Emerald Queen Casino to sponsor its pocket schedule and assorted merchandise.
Where the Muckleshoot deal differs is the scope and the potential for future gains on the gaming side for the new NHL team in a sport where national TV revenue lags behind other major leagues. While sports gaming represents only a fraction of the gambling that occurs nationwide, the American Gaming Association estimates the NHL could reap revenue gains of $216 million annually from it, about a third of its current national TV intake.
The NHL last year inked a partnership with MGM Resorts International allowing the gaming giant access to proprietary puck-and-player-tracking data the league began collecting this season. That data can be used to help odds makers in efforts to be more accurate as well as in setting various proposition bets.
Washington has some of the nation’s strictest anti-gaming laws, and sports betting remains illegal. But amid a nationwide push to legalize such betting in numerous states, a bill was sponsored in the state legislature last winter by Majority Caucus Chairman Eric Pettigrew and seven others calling for professional and college sports gambling to be allowed within tribal gaming facilities.
House Bill 1975 also calls for the legalization of online sports gaming within those tribal areas. Washington remains the only state where any form of internet gambling is a Class C felony.
The bill was the only one of three pro-gambling efforts approved by a House committee last spring before stalling ahead of a vote. But Pettigrew, who last month was hired by NHL Seattle as a community ambassador and director of suites operations, has vowed to keep pushing and hopes the bill passes by next year.
