Sports leagues may not have had much success in convincing states to pay “integrity fees” when people bet on their games, but the New Jersey Devils are showing that leagues and franchises have plenty of earning potential when it comes to legalized sports betting.
In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Devils team president Hugh Weber said that he expects the franchise to net $5 million from sponsorship deals multiple sports betting operators.
New Jersey Advantage
Weber didn’t say how many agreements factored in to that projection, nor which companies the franchise was working with. Likewise, he offered no details about how these marketing deals would work. But he did note that his team had an edge over other pro sports teams looking to partner up with sportsbooks.
“Obviously, being in New Jersey and being the only team in New Jersey gives us a great advantage,” Weber said.
The Devils aren’t technically the only major professional sports team that plays in the state. Both the New York Jets and Giants play their home games at the Meadowlands, in East Rutherford. And if you include Major League Soccer, the New York Red Bulls play in Harrison, New Jersey.
But all of those teams are more strongly connected to New York both in name and fan bases. Ever since the New Jersey Nets moved to Brooklyn in 2012, the Devils have more or less held a monopoly on the state’s professional sports market.
That has made them an attractive partner for gambling companies looking to turn fans into bettors. “We’ll see probably in the neighborhood of $5 million come into the team this year just through various marketing partnerships with a multitude of different players that are in this space,” Weber said. “They are looking to get engaged with our fans.”
Devils Follow Golden Knights
Similar deals are likely to become more common in the future. At the moment, only a handful of professional sports franchises play in states where sports betting has been legalized, though that number will increase dramatically when Pennsylvania’s sportsbooks begin to open this fall.
But already, those teams that can take advantage of these partnerships have begun to do so. The Vegas Golden Knights recently announced an extensive marketing partnership with William Hill. On a broader basis, the NBA signed a deal with MGM Resorts International in July to make the gaming firm its official sports gambling partner.
NHL betting typically only makes up a small percentage of revenues for most sportsbooks, as the league lags behind the NFL, NBA, and MLB in popularity in the United States. But the Golden Knights bucked that trend in Las Vegas: according to an ESPN report, the Knights alone accounted for 30 percent of the hockey handle at sportsbooks run by CG Technology last season.
It remains to be seen if the Devils can provide a similar boost for hockey betting in New Jersey. If fans do decide to put some money down on their home team, they might walk away very happy: William Hill is currently offering the Devils at 40/1 odds to win the Stanley Cup this season.