Fanatics and the Major League Baseball Players Association signed an agreement last week to use player likenesses in its sports betting app.
Sports Business Journal was the first to report the news Wednesday. Fanatics confirmed the deal Friday, though no terms were disclosed.
The deal comes just weeks after the MLB Players sued four sports betting and daily fantasy operators for unauthorized use of their likenesses:
- bet365
- DraftKings
- FanDuel
- Underdog
Sports betting deal not exclusive
According to SBJ, the likeness deal Fanatics signed with the players association is not exclusive.
That leaves open a possibility that the four operators could be working on their own deals with the players to help settle those lawsuits.
Bet365 and DraftKings were sued in the Eastern District Court of Pennsylvania, while FanDuel and Underdog were sued in the New York Supreme Court. The next filings in both cases are not due until next month.
DraftKings sports betting interrupted Thursday
DraftKings was down for about six hours Thursday after a recent upgrade, a company spokesperson said.
That is not ideal at any time, but especially not on a day with primetime NFL betting. The company’s customer support account on Twitter posted about the issue at 8:30 am Eastern, with the all-clear update coming at 2:13 pm.
“[On Thursday], a recent upgrade to one of our infrastructure components momentarily affected communication between our systems, resulting in a temporary Sportsbook outage,” the statement said.
AGA signs international partnership
The American Gaming Association signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate with the European Casino Association and the Betting & Gaming Council on various industry issues.
Those include illegal gambling, responsible gaming, innovation and security.
“By sharing our unique resources, we will expand our fight against illegal gambling to new fronts, work together to strengthen responsible gaming, and innovate around business best practices,” AGA CEO Bill Miller said.
The ECA represents land-based casinos in Europe, while the BGC represents more than 90% of betting, casino, bingo and online gaming operators in the United Kingdom.
Choctaw Nation readies Class II mobile launch
GeoComply announced Tuesday it will provide geo-verification services to the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma‘s mobile gaming platform.
Because it is class II gaming, online gambling will only be available while at their casinos or on tribal lands, which GeoComply will confirm.
In April, the Choctaw Nation partnered with Kambi for an exclusive nationwide sports betting partnership. The long-term deal was signed with “the ambition to become an online and retail sports betting powerhouse” in multiple states, according to the release.
Betr adds head of marketing
Alex Kuwada is joining Betr as its head of marketing.
Kuwada will focus on customer acquisition and retention with the help of Betr Media’s capabilities. He replaces the interim head of marketing Jesse Chemtob, who will now serve as interim head of commercial.
Kuwada was formerly the senior director of growth at FanDuel.