A landmark agreement was made recently when DraftKings became an Authorized Sports Betting Operator of the National Basketball Association. The agreement will give DraftKings full access to official data from the NBA that it will use in its betting platform on both desktop and mobile devices. The company is also able to use the NBA league marks in all of its products. This is just another move that shows how far professional sports leagues have come in regard to legal betting on sports. It wasn’t long ago that these leagues were fighting the legalization of single sports gambling across the United States — and in other countries — but now, they are creating new partnerships with sports betting operators to capitalize on the immense revenue potential.
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Protecting the integrity of the game
One of the biggest concerns for leagues such as the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB and even NCAA with legal sports betting was that the integrity of games within their leagues could be compromised. With the possibility of legal sports betting throughout the United — and in other countries such as Canada to follow — league offices were concerned players, coaches and even officials could be swayed to alter the outcome of games by sports bettors wagering loads of money.
When these leagues lost the fight in May 2018, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned PASPA and put the power of legal sports betting in the states’ hands, the leagues got smart and started partnering with sportsbooks to ensure the integrity of the game. In this particular partnership, the NBA and DraftKings plan to work hand-in-hand on “best-in-class practices” to ensure that the integrity of all NBA games is upheld consistently. How the NBA and DraftKings intend to do this, though, has not been officially detailed. Want to get in on the sports betting action? Check out the online sportsbook below.
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Live wager options are crucial to operators
Live betting is becoming one of the most popular ways to wager on sporting events. But that is even more so the case in regards to the NBA. For DraftKings specifically, more than 70% of the bettors who have wagered on the NBA on its platform have done so via a live wager. In total, almost 45% of the handle the company has taken on NBA games have come from in-game bets.
This is one of the reasons why this partnership was so crucial for DraftKings. By having full access to the NBA’s official stats and data for betting purposes, DraftKings is able to offer the most up-to-date stats and data possible, allowing it to expand and enhance its live betting offerings for NBA games.
While betting on the NBA certainly trails that of other leagues such as the NFL, basketball still ranks among the most popular sports for people to bet on, and it’s only projected to get more popular as more features and wagers are offered.
“NBA games are among the most captivating, dramatic and widely-consumed sports entertainment products globally, and the advocacy of the league around legal sports betting further demonstrates its consistent foresight to innovate for the betterment of the fan experience,” said DraftKings’ chief business officer, Ezra Kucharz. “The correlation between sports betting and fan engagement is proven, and we look forward to the opportunities that being an Authorized Gaming Operator of the NBA will unlock for consumers.” Try your hand at betting on the NBA at one of the online sportsbooks below.
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