North America’s National Football League (NFL) announced its first-ever US sportsbook partnerships as Caesars Entertainment, DraftKings and FanDuel have reached agreements to become Official Sports Betting Partners of the NFL.
Tri-exclusive partners and multi-year agreements
The NFL announced this Thursday multi-year agreements with Caesars Entertainment, DraftKings and FanDuel, representing a big change for the NFL that opposed sports betting for decades over fears that it would damage the league’s integrity.
“As the sports betting landscape has continued to evolve in the US, we have been thoughtful with our strategy and are excited to announce three partners who share the NFL’s vision and goals,” NFL Chief Revenue Officer and Executive Vice President Renie Anderson said.
The partnerships are for five years and allegedly worth nearly $1 billion combined, including an exit option at the end of the third and fourth years for the NFL.
Details
As part of the deals, the three official bookmaking companies will get the use of NFL trademarks, for betting promotions, as well as official league data and the right to integrate sports betting content directly into NFL Media properties, including NFL.com and the NFL app.
Caesars will continue as the league’s official casino sponsor as per an existing partnership between the two parties. DraftKings is renewing its role as the league’s official daily fantasy sports partner. FanDuel becomes the NFL’s newest partner.
First wave
The three bespoke operators are the first official partners of the league that is expected to announce another wave of sports betting partnership but with lesser content options and more restrictions. It notably agreed to a data rights deal with Genius Sports earlier this month.
Last March, the league also concluded 11-year media rights deal with partners NBCUniversal, Fox Sports, ESPN, CBS Sports and Amazon, worth over $100 billion.
