The National Basketball Association (NBA) finds itself courted by sports betting giants DraftKings, FanDuel, and Caesars Sportsbooks as the association’s media rights will be up for early grabs in 2022 and several new parties may be joining as owners in 2025 when the deal is officially going to take effect.
With sports betting heavyweights focusing exclusively on betting so far, operators are finally trying to break into the mainstream sports space decisively and what better way than holding a package rights deal with the NBA.
The NBA will be looking for a significant increase in its price tag for the association’s rights package – an estimated $75 billion for the new deal as opposed to the $24 billion deal the association currently has with Turner Sports and ESPN. The two media companies divvied up the rights in 2002 and have retained the status quo until now.
According to Front Office Sports, the company reporting originally on the news, the new package deal may have a specific betting-focused with broadcasts for both sports betting aficionados and regular sports fans available.
New Coverage to Reflect Interest in Sports Betting
The idea of adding more betting partners to the association is not entirely surprising as the NBA was the first to embrace gaming partners with the league signing a partnership with MGM in 2018. The NBA has topped that first partnership with several others, including tie-ups with William Hill, PointsBet, Sportradar, Genius Sports, and naturally, DraftKings and FanDuel.
Individually, there have been many teams that have signed up partnerships with betting companies independently from the league. The NBA also has an existing partnership with Tabcorp as the association’s official partner in Australia, both as a promoter and since the latest amendment to the deal, its official sports gambling partner in the country.
Beyond FOS’ report, though, there is no concrete evidence to suggest what the NBA may be exploring in terms of betting partnerships. The league, however, is not likely to pass up on what appears to be a massive opportunity for it. Sports gambling is picking up quickly with over 30 states now offering some form of betting available.
New Jersey has just clocked over $1.01 billion in total bets collected in a single month in September and NBA sports bettors are naturally inclined to be more competitive as they attempt to win money or just secure bragging rights with their peers, as indicated by a new study by Pickwise.