American gambling and betting brands dominate the sports sponsorship spend across the Americas region. The top 10 largest deals are heavily dominated by the big four major sports leagues in the Americas, which include the National Football League (NFL), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Hockey League (NHL), and Major League Baseball (MLB). However, Ultimate Fighting Championship’s (UFC) deal with DraftKings sits outside of this. With a partnership worth $350 million across five years, the deal ranks highest in terms of annual value in the gambling and betting sector across the Americas, reveals GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
GlobalData’ s latest report, “Sponsorship Sector Report – Gambling and Betting – Americas 2024,” reveals that American football dominates the spend in the gambling and betting sector across the Americas region in 2024. The NFL ranks second, third, and fourth in terms of largest annual deal values, with partnerships with FanDuel, DraftKings, and Caesars Entertainment, all worth $40 million annually.
Olivia Snooks, Sport Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The big four sports leagues in the US dominate the sports sponsorship landscape across the Americas. The UFC’s deal reflects the popularity of sports betting within combat sports. The UFC is increasing its presence in the sports betting industry, targeting its younger audience demographic with online sports betting.”
Additionally, soccer dominated the volume of deals in the gambling and betting sector in the Americas with 117 deals and ranks second in terms of annual value. Basketball, ice hockey, and baseball all follow closely behind in both value and volume of deals, ranking in the top five sports sponsorship spends.
Snooks continues: “Alongside the big four sports league sponsorship portfolios, the gambling and betting brands spend is heavily invested in the most popular sports across the Americas. Gambling and betting brands have prioritized their spend with many teams and venues associated with the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL. These partnerships have very high value due to the reach that these leagues achieve.”
BetMGM is the most active gambling and betting brand in sports sponsorship across the Americas region, with 33 deals. The brand’s top deal is MGM Resorts partnership with the MLB, which sees the gambling and betting brand serve as an official sports betting partner of the league. DraftKings closely follows behind with 32 deals. Its top deal is with the UFC; however, it also has partnerships with some of the major sports leagues across the Americas, including the NBA, NFL, and NHL.
Snooks concludes: “It is no surprise that the top gambling and betting brands that are involved in sports sponsorship across the Americas have partnerships with the major sports leagues in the region. With American sports lifting a blanket ban on betting deals in 2018, brands have since been able to strike deals that were not previously possible, hence the large volume and value of some of the gambling and betting brands’ sponsorship portfolios.”
