The NBA announced a new partnership with MGM Resorts on Tuesday that makes MGM the official sports gaming partner of the league. The league and the casino/hotel giant are not new to each other, as MGM owns the Las Vegas Aces — who play home games at MGM Grand in Vegas — and has been the title sponsor for Summer League the past two years.
According to ESPN’s Darren Rovell, the “multi-year” partnership touted by the league on Tuesday is a three-year deal worth more than $25 million.
BREAKING: NBA & WNBA signs MGM as official gaming partner. Sources tab deal at 3 years at more than $25 million. Gives MGM rights to names, logos & data feed.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) July 31, 2018
The announcement was fairly vague, and most fans just want to know how this will effect them as sports wagering becomes legal in more and more places around the country.
The short answer is, it won’t. There are no exclusivity rights for MGM beyond being able to use NBA logos in marketing and having the title of official sports gaming partner of the NBA. You will still be able to trot down to whatever local establishment you like to place wagers on and do so legally and happily, if you are in a state that has such services available.
Adam Silver speaks on the exclusivity of the deal between MGM Resorts International and the NBA. pic.twitter.com/oncXh8O75M
— NBA TV (@NBATV) July 31, 2018
According to the NBA’s release on the partnership, MGM will get promotion across the NBA’s various platforms, from NBA TV to NBA.com and everywhere in between, as well as producing a digital content series with the league — one would expect to focus on NBA wagering. Beyond that, MGM is paying for direct live data from the NBA, which is, again, not exclusive to them, but gives them an air of being more authoritative and official.
The league gets data sharing from MGM as part of the “best integrity practices” clause of the agreement, which is a very big deal for the league as it will be able to look at wagering data at MGM and track bets and trends — and look to spot anything out of the ordinary. In essence, the league gets a lot — money and data — while MGM helps out an old friend by setting a precedent for other casino giants to also work deals with the league for data and integrity fees. By getting in early, MGM can lock up the “official partner” title, with the hopes that others will follow suit.
If they don’t, MGM seems to have essentially worked a new $25 million advertising agreement with the league, with little else working to its advantage in this deal beyond playing nice with the NBA — which, given MGM’s ownership of the largest arenas in Las Vegas (T-Mobile Arena and MGM Grand Garden Arena), could be very beneficial down the line as the league could look to have more of a presence in the city in the future.
