The National Basketball Association (NBA) on Monday named DraftKings as its latest sports betting partner.
The DFS and sports-betting giant joins four other New Jersey sportsbooks with whom the NBA has partnered since July 2018.
That was when it became the first US professional sports body to form an association with a gaming house. The company in question was MGM Resorts, owners of the online sportsbook BetMGM.
FanDuel, NJ’s sports-betting market leader and DraftKings’ top DFS rival, was the next sportsbook to link up with the NBA.
This came in December last year. The NBA extended an existing DFS partnership with FanDuel to include sports betting.
In the same month, it also partnered with BetStars, which would later merge with FOX sport and become FOX Bet.
Besides DraftKings sign partnership, NBA also named an Australian partner
International betting titan William Hill was the fourth sports-betting operator to partner with the NBA. They finalized their deal last month, not long before the Basketball League had announced that it had appointed Tabcorp as its Australian partner.
The NBA’s partnership will enable DraftKings to use the league’s official data to boost its betting markets, notably for live betting. It will also be able to make use of NBA logos.
In announcing the deal with DraftKings, Scott Kaufman-Ross of the NBA said: “We are excited to team with DraftKings. It has established itself as one leader in the sports betting landscape in the US and has a passionate NBA following”.
Deals of the kind just negotiated by DraftKings are good, both for the sportsbooks and for the NBA.
The NBA’s data gives those sportsbooks using it a much wider range of betting markets. And at a moment in time when live, in-play betting is growing fast, it can be a key advantage.
Sports betting heightens passion of NBA fans
On the NBA’s side, partnerships like these can also help increase the passion of its fans and bring them closer to the game. It also gives the NBA a greater say in the betting market. We saw this when its authorities stopped illegal sportsbooks from accessing official league data.
This was in May, only days before the NBA Finals between the Toronto Raptors and the Golden State Warriors. It resulted in the unauthorized sportsbooks falling badly behind in the numbers of betting options they were able to offer.
DraftKings’ partnership deal with the NBA is not it’s first with a major US sports league.
In September, DraftKings signed one with the NFL making it an official DFS (daily fantasy sports) partner.
NFL has yet to partner any sports betting operators in the way the freer-thinking NBA has. However, its deal with DraftKings is an indication that change is on the way.
