Gambling tech firm International Game Technology (IGT) has worked out a deal to allow its B2B sports betting partners the right to use NBA intellectual property without signing a direct deal with the league.
On Wednesday, IGT announced that it had signed a ‘multi-year’ deal with the National Basketball Association that will make the company the first B2B sports betting platform in the United States to offer regional casinos and sportsbooks the right to use NBA official data, trademarks and logos through partnerships with IGT.
The NBA has been among the busier North American professional sports bodies in signing official betting partnerships with high-profile gaming operators, including (deep breath) DraftKings, FanDuel, Mexico’s Codere, Australia’s Tabcorp Holdings and BetEeasy, Uruguay’s SuperMatch, the Kindred Group’s Unibet brand, Baltic gaming operator Olympic Entertainment Group and William Hill.
Smaller casino operators or racetracks, who lack the above companies’ marketing budgets but are looking to add sports betting to their product mix, now have a more economical option. By striking deals with IGT, they can not only utilize the company’s PlaySports B2B betting services but also the right to liberally incorporate NBA iconography – as well as offering in-play betting markets based on official NBA real-time data – into the mix.
IGT PlayDigital VP Enrico Drago said the NBA tie-up “further validates IGT’s seriousness about delivering an unrivaled sports betting solution for the US market and supports the ‘all-in-one’ proposition that we offer.”
Scott Kaufman-Ross, the NBA’s Head of Fantasy & Gaming boldly predicted that IGT’s new ability to offer “an ‘out of the box’ authentic NBA sports betting solution” would prove irresistible to “a diverse set” of regional gaming operators across the US.
That presumably includes the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, with which IGT signed a retail sports betting agreement last month for the tribe’s two casinos in North Dakota. That deal gave IGT a sports betting presence in 15 US states.
In August, IGT announced the formation of a ‘full-service trading team’ based in Las Vegas to further burnish PlaySports’ appeal and meet the growing demand for in-house odds-making.
