PlayOn is a Dublin, Ireland, and London, England-based company that will now be the league's primary daily fantasy sports partner in countries across Latin America, Asia, and Europe. PlayOn already had a deal with the PGA European Tour and this move only legitimizes them even more.
The NBA was represented by the league's Presidents of global partnerships, Salvatore LaRocca who explained the importance of this partnership by saying “With basketball’s global appeal, we are always looking for new ways to bring authentic NBA experiences to our fans across the world,” he then went on to say “Our partnership with PlayOn provides us an opportunity to deepen our engagement with our international audience, and bring these fans closer to the game.”
The chief executive and founder of PlayOn, Killian Jones, expressed his excitement as well saying “PlayOn is delighted to be partnering with the NBA to deliver Official Daily Fantasy NBA Games...The NBA’s global reach and daily fixture schedule make it an ideal fit for daily fantasy. We look forward to working closely with the NBA to deliver innovative sports entertainment experiences to basketball fans around the world.”
Countries Included IN NBA/PlayOn Deal
France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Australia, Japan, and the Philippines. After obtaining their license to do so, PlayOn can now provide paid-entry contests to players in Ireland, Australia, and the UK but does not offer these contests in the United States. As far as their free gaming options, they will be specifically tailored to appease local players and will be offered in select languages.
Why The NBA Didn’t Choose FanDuel
The NBA has equity in FanDuel and they’ve been partners for a couple of years now so why did the NBA go with PlayOn instead of FanDuel? Well, first of all, it’s worth noting that the new deal with PlayOn doesn’t affect the FanDuel deal in any way. That being said, FanDuel already offers free-to-play games for the NA in the United States, so it seems only logical to extend that deal to other countries. The key point here is that PlayOn already provides international players with international sports such as rugby league, cricket, club league soccer and more. This gives them an advantage over FanDuel because they have already developed a name for themselves across 100 countries as opposed to FanDuel’s almost entirely American player support (have begun expanding in the UK and Germany).
What This Deal Means
The NBA’s new partnership with PlayOn is just the latest indicator of how invested the National Basketball Association is in the future of daily fantasy sports and sports betting in Illinois. This shows that they want to broaden the market, and will promote it in the US and abroad.