NBA’s Newest Gambling Product: Betting on Games That Don’t Exist
NBA’s Newest Gambling Product: Betting on Games That Don’t Exist
(Bloomberg) -- The National Basketball Association has come up with a way for fans to gamble real money on fake games.
The league announced that it will create a virtual sports-betting game, called NBA Last 90, that will splice random highlights from real NBA games and combine them. Gamblers will then wager on the outcome.
Done in collaboration with the NBA players union and U.K.-based Highlight Games Ltd., the product will tap the league’s vast archive of games to create an unlimited number of gambling opportunities. It will be available starting next season, in legal U.S. and European markets.
“Virtual sports betting is incredibly popular in regions around the world and we’re looking forward to giving fans another innovative way to engage with the NBA,” Scott Kaufman-Ross, the NBA’s head of fantasy and gaming operations, said in a statement.
Bettors will be dropped into the final 90 seconds of a virtual matchup between two NBA teams, say, the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers. The game will then splice together random possessions from various Nets-Lakers games in recent years. Gamblers can wager on things like who will win the “game,” the total number of three-pointers made in the final 90 seconds, and the combined number of points.
The NBA has been quicker to embrace legalized sports betting than other pro-sports organizations. Commissioner Adam Silver was the first head of a major league to advocate for a change in the federal ban, and the NBA has been active in lobbying statehouses around the country.
When the Supreme Court struck down the federal ban last year, the NBA was the first U.S. league to sign a marketing deal with a sportsbook and the first to sign a nationwide gambling data distribution deal.
--With assistance from Ira Boudway.
To contact the reporter on this story: Eben Novy-Williams in New York at enovywilliam@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net
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