Yahoo Sports To Produce NBA Betting Content Featured On League Pass Broadcasts

As part of a multi-year extension of their existing partnership, Yahoo Sports is now an official marketing partner and will be producing betting content on its platforms including on NBA League Pass starting next week, the companies announced Thursday.

Yahoo’s distribution of NBA League Pass will also be expanded in time for the first two restart games from Orlando, with fantasy and gaming integrations coming to LP. The Verizon
VZ
-owned entity will be featuring special betting and fantasy-centric game overlays on League Pass, with the possibility of that starting during seeding games at Disney World in Orlando.

Team broadcasts have tried out betting-focused broadcasts in local markets like Philadelphia and Washington D.C. in the past, but this new agreement with Yahoo Sports will have the league fully leaning in to betting content in time for the highly anticipated resumption of regular season games. NBA branded promos will now be marketed on Yahoo’s platforms, Yahoo Sports will have courtside signage seen during nationally televised games and will have activations at major events like Summer League and All-Star weekend.

Yahoo’s fantasy basketball site will soon feature more betting-focused previews and recaps and the company’s sports book will now feature NBA logos and the potential for direct NBA content found within the betting platform. Yahoo will be the presenting partner of the NBA’s playoff pick’em bracket challenges. The agreement also gives Yahoo the rights in the future to produce fantasy and betting content for the WNBA and the NBA G-League as well.

Also part of the agreement is a production deal with Verizon-owned RYOT to produce 12 seeding games in virtual reality via Oculus Venues on Oculus Quest and Oculus Go headsets. Those games will all be on League Pass and begin with Friday’s game between the Washington Wizards and Phoenix Suns. For the seeding games, RYOT is stepping in to take over production from NextVR as part of the agreement. The league also has an active partnership with Oculus, where the games are distributed, and an Immersive Media partnership with Intel.