The NBA is one of the most popular sports leagues, not just in the USA but all over the world, with many sports fans getting their only taste of basketball through the NBA every year. It is thus sensible for companies looking to enter sports betting, especially focused around basketball, to try and have a partnership with the NBA. Thus, International Game Technology (IGT), which is a multinational gambling provider, has done well to enter into a multi-year partnership with the NBA to bring sports betting to its customers as well as NBA fans all over the world.
IGT’s PlaySports sports betting program will be the vehicle for this partnership, with IGT being able to use official NBA data, logos and marks at its regional casinos as well as the various sportsbooks it operates. This makes IGT the first B2B sports betting platform provider in the USA to be able to use official NBA data. For those who are not clued into the global gambling space, IGT is one of the major players in this sector, with its headquarters in London, and offices in Rome, Las Vegas, Rhode Island and Providence. It is controlled by an Italian company, De Agostini, but is multinational in nature and operations, with customers all over the world. The company operates multiple sportsbooks, as well as IGT is also one of the world’s largest gambling games providers, whose slots can be found at Winz online casino. While IGT also operates many state and provincial lotteries in the US, along with local and national lotteries all over the world.
This deal will allow IGT’s sports betting users and customers to be able to use NBA intellectual property, such as logos, team names, data, statistics and team crests, in their own sportsbooks due to this agreement. Thus, regional and local partners of IGT across the USA will be able to provide a much more authentic sports betting experience as far as the NBA is concerned to their customers, without having to shell out an extra penny, just by virtue of their own partnerships with IGT. One of the most important aspects of this deal is the access to official NBA data. There has been a steady increase in the popularity of in-play bets, parlay bets and prop bets in sports betting, and having access to real-time and authentic numbers and stats from the NBA itself will be a huge advantage for IGT’s sportsbooks, as they will be able to provide better odds to customers, as well as being able to create compelling betting options and menus to offer to sports betting fans who are interested in basketball.
IGT has operations in over 100 countries globally by virtue of its 2006 acquisition of Gtech. In 2014, Gtech bought International Gaming Technology, which was the world’s largest slot machine manufacturer, for $6.4 billion, and chose the name for itself as well, leading to the current version of the IGT brand that we know today. Gtech itself had been bought by Italian gambling company Lottomatica in 2006, which then adopted the Gtech name for itself as well.
As of 2015, the company has more than 12,000 employees globally, with revenue of nearly $4.7 billion, operating income of $539 million and total assets worth more than $15 billion. These numbers show how IGT is one of the biggest global gambling operators, and thus this deal with the NBA will help to solidify its customer base in the USA, while also attracting new fans to the company’s various sportsbooks and gambling operations.