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Current NBA players endorsing sportsbooks as paid ambassadors – with specific caveats – became a possibility with the new collective bargaining agreement that took effect on July 1, 2023.
It didn’t become a reality until Jan. 31, 2024, when DraftKings announced that Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James had joined as an endorser.
“Welcoming one of the most influential and greatest athletes of all time, LeBron James, to the DraftKings family is an absolute honor and privilege. We look forward to working with a passionate sports fan who shares the same competitive mindset that echoes throughout the walls at DraftKings, while delivering exciting engagement opportunities to our customers and his loyal fanbase for years to come,” DraftKings CEO and co-founder Jason Robins said.
Active NBA players joined their counterparts in MLB and the NHL in gaining this new potential revenue stream through a negotiated CBA.
According to the new NBA CBA, a player may participate in the promotion or endorsement of a gaming company only if:
- “Such participation is limited to (1) general brand promotion or endorsement, or (2) promotion or
endorsement of betting on non-NBA League sports; - “Compensation for such participation is not determined in any respect by NBA League wagering
or outcomes of NBA League games (e.g., compensation to the player may not be based on the amount wagered on NBA League games) - “Such participation and such Gaming Company’s operation comply with all applicable laws and
regulations relating to sports wagering, fantasy sports contests, or similar transactions.”
The section reinforces the points with: “For clarity, no player may participate in endorsement or promotional activity of a Gaming Company where such endorsement or promotion involves NBA League-related bets or contests.”
Players are allowed to become “passive” investors in gaming companies in non-decision-making capacities.
Two questions now arose: Would the popularity of the NBA as a betting market and the power of its celebrities entice sportsbooks to hire these players as brand ambassadors, when only Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews in the NHL and baseball player Charlie Blackmon landed these gigs when they became available in their sports?
And given the outcry from player unions about the impact of legal sports betting on their interactions with fans and bettors, would players even want the job?
The answers to both questions should continue go far in determining the level of NFL players’ involvement, when or if the last of the big-four pro sports fraternity gains this right through collective bargaining. In this case, as with McDavid and Matthews, respected, successful megastars were the first deployed.
Amani Toomer, who won a Super Bowl with the New York Giants and is now a trustee at Entain Foundation U.S., said he doesn’t think active NFL players will earn the right to endorse sportsbooks. Though the NFL has long benefitted from the fervor gambling creates and now openly embraces it as a revenue stream, Toomer feels the nation’s most popular sports property will not cross this line.
They’ve got a league that everybody watches. They’ve got players everybody respects. They have the players under control in terms of code of conduct. I just feel like it doesn’t make any sense for them, to open themselves up for any problems.”
“I think the NFL has the golden goose,” he told Gaming Today. “They’ve got a league that everybody watches. They’ve got players everybody respects. They have the players under control in terms of code of conduct. I just feel like it doesn’t make any sense for them, to open themselves up for any problems. Because the worst thing that you could do for the NFL is to have people not believe what they’re saying, that they don’t believe that the integrity of the game is what it is. That’s the worst thing that can happen. And so why would they even work with it? It’s not worth it for them.”
Wide receiver Calvin Ridley was suspended for the entire 2022 NFL season after it was found he bet legally on NFL games while on leave from the Atlanta Falcons.
NBA Players Endorsing Sportsbooks Allowed Within Strict Parameters
As with the NHL and MLB deals, there will be strict guard rails for brand ambassador deals for NBA players.
Constraints on potential NBA sports betting brand ambassadors are similar to those for MLB and NHL players. A BetMGM commercial this year, for example, featured Edmonton Oilers superstar McDavid practicing in non-branded, all-black gear while retired Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky did all the shilling. The PGA Tour goes further in allowing players to promote golf markets that don’t involve their performance. Jordan Spieth is a brand ambassador for FanDuel.
Meanwhile, some North American gambling commissions have begun reconsidering the roles of celebrity endorsers and their influence on minors.
The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) wants to ban the use of athletes and celebrities who might appeal to kids in internet gambling advertisements. | @CBCToronto https://t.co/NtSwBwe12h
— CBC (@CBC) April 16, 2023
The NBA’s previous CBA took effect ten months after the nullification of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which allowed states to legalize sports betting. According to reports, NBA players would also be allowed to invest in gambling companies.
As with the NHL guidelines, NBA players would be allowed to endorse sportsbooks only in jurisdictions where it is licensed. That will have a major limiting effect in the Western Conference.
Ten of 15 Eastern Conference teams reside in states or jurisdictions where sports betting is legal. However, just five of 15 Western Conference franchises would offer the same opportunity because several of them are located in California or Texas.
Is This Job Worth It to Players?
The opportunity has limitations, but is it worth it to sportsbooks?
The NBA will be an interesting indicator of the value of player endorsers compared to MLB and the NHL, as “basketball” as an amorphous category is the most popular betting market in the United States, comprising around 35%. Granted, that includes the wildly popular NCAA Tournament, but state revenue reports show that the NBA is a handle-generator outside of March.
Football, meanwhile, accounts for around 32% of the American sports betting handle.
Baseball (14%) and hockey (3%) betting aren’t close, which, combined with the sensible complexities of doing deals with current players, has led sportsbooks to assess the value of signing superstars in those sports.
Baseball’s lone sportsbook brand ambassador, Rockies outfielder Blackmon, lost his gig when MaximBet went out of business.
NBA players, though, remain high-profile and influential. In the winter edition of Q Scores Performer Q Study — which measures the recognizability and likability of persons and brands — NBA players comprised 40% of the top 10 in Giannis Antetokounmpo, Steph Curry, Luka Doncic, and Ja Morant (pre-gun incident).
“I can understand why some sportsbooks would want basketball players, but I don’t know if that’s the right idea to try and persuade somebody to choose your site over another,” Toomer said. “I just feel like it’s blurring the lines.
“It’s OK to do. Everything is fine with it. It’s all above board, but I feel like former players or people who are enthusiastic about gambling and are bettors, some celebrities who really like gambling who are courtside all the time. There’s a big difference between gamblers and athletes.”
Circa director of operations Jeff Benson called allowing active athletes to endorse sportsbooks a “horrendous idea” and a “recipe for disaster.”
“I think it just blurs the line of that integrity,” Benson told Gaming Today. “If you have a team or player that’s attached to a sportsbook and their prop is set at 16 1/2 and they check out of the game and don’t come back in and they leave with 16 points, then there’s talk they were working with the sportsbook that they’re affiliated with.
“I don’t think there’s anything good that could come from it.”
In 2024, scores of MLB players shared stories of death threats from disgruntled bettors.
Freak Looks Prescient, Set to Reap Rewards
This new CBA comes after Fanatics founder Michael Rubin ten months ago announced he was divesting his stakes in the New Jersey Devils and Philadelphia 76ers to conform with league rules as his apparel company launched a sports betting operation. This isn’t about owners, though.
The deal would be right on time for Milwaukee Bucks superstar Antetokounmpo, who since 2020 has had a live trademark on “Greek Freak” with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the purposes of:
“Entertainment services, namely, providing a website for on-line gambling; Entertainment services, namely, providing an on-line computer game; Entertainment services, namely, providing games of chance via the Internet; Entertainment services, namely, providing online electronic games; Gaming services in the nature of online games, e-games, virtual reality games, and video games; Providing on-line computer games”
Antetokounmpo is following the lead of Hall of Famer and BetMGM spokesman Shaquille O’Neal, who in 2020 trademarked “Shaqpot” with the stated purposes of:
“Betting services; gambling services; wagering services; gaming services in the nature of providing wagering services on sports events; entertainment services, namely, contest and incentive award programs designed to reward program participants who engage in online betting, gaming, gambling and wagering on sports events; entertainment services, namely, providing a website featuring online betting, gaming in the nature of online computer game tournaments, gambling and wagering services related to sporting events.”
Unions Long on Edge About Gambling’s Impact on Their Jobs
Player unions began reacting to the eventual spread of legal sports betting in the United States soon after the Supreme Court nullification of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in 2018. A month after that decision allowed states to legalize sports betting, unions began asking Congress for protection against possible coercion or intimidation. Leagues simultaneously began lobbying for so-called “integrity fees” in new state laws to institute, they claimed, anti-corruption policing measures.
In January, a coalition of player unions petitioned the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to limit certain prop bets that could single out players for bettors’ ire.
“The concerns we have… are there merely because of the fans’ interests and passion in who wins the game,” Steve Fehr, special counsel for the National Hockey League Players Association, during that meeting. “When you add to it now they may have bet on certain aspects of the game, and the performance of a certain player may excite or disappoint the fans, the concern is even more heightened.”
A proposed regulation from the unions:
“The Players know that they will be targeted by potential losing sports [bettors], and importantly, know that their family members will also be targeted. These instances have already occurred in different parts of the U.S. and other countries, and they and their families should be protected by Massachusetts regulations. In fact, there have been several well-publicized incidents over the last year involving unruly fan behavior in which players’ safety has been at risk including one at the TD Garden [in Boston].”
Added said David Foster, deputy general counsel to the NBPA:
“When you have more betting, you have increased tension, increased anxiety and increased anger. Oftentimes, the teams and the leagues [struggle] a little bit when it comes to enforcing discipline on fans, because fans are the ones that are driving the revenue.”
An athlete is a lot more recognizable in basketball than in other sports. And far more accessible than anyone else that might have angered a bettor. Dallas Mavericks fans and bettors on Friday likely would have loved a word with management after the team opted to sit several starters at home in losing a game that eliminated it from the playoffs but improved its draft stock. At least owner Mark Cuban sits courtside.
Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love told PlayUSA last year that he’d begun receiving social media messages both thanking him for winning money and “Hey, I can’t pay my rent for the month. Thanks … asshole.’”
Last month in Orlando, an irate fan yelled “You f**ked me [out of] $1,300, you f**k,” to Washington guard Bradley Beal, according to a police report filed by the fan, who accused the player of touching him. Now NBA players can endorse sportsbooks, albeit not basketball games. Would that matter to the fan in Orlando?
This all still seems surreal to Toomer, who said gambling was “the third rail you didn’t touch” when he was a player. After having negative interactions with daily fantasy sports players then, he can only imagine what current players experience in the age of widely available legal sports betting.
One conversation, in particular, remains fresh.
“I remember one time this guy came up to me and was like, ‘Hey, man, what’s going on with you? You haven’t scored a touchdown this year in fantasy’,” Toomer recalled.
“And then I was like, ‘Well, the NFL is hard. And that was my worst year, playing hurt and stuff. And then he comes up to me and asks for an autograph. I said ‘No. Get out of my face.'”
“It’s weird because they’re betting on your dream, basically. It’s not a livelihood. It’s not an occupation. It’s a dream. They’re betting on you, which is good, but then there’s expectations and they feel like you’re doing it for that, which is totally ridiculous. …
“I do not envy the guys now, Because it’s not only about what people say in the front row. All these guys grew up on social media, so they get slammed on social media. It was easy for guys like me. I didn’t even have Twitter. So it didn’t bother me. I could just turn off my phone. So I could very easily not pay attention to anything. But these guys have grown up on it and live square by it. It’s just a totally different animal. “
