Sixers and Devils are "All In"

In the world of sports, there are certain categories that can be controversial. Some of these include alcohol for college sports and tobacco companies for really any sports. Finally, gambling is always a debated topic when it comes to successful sponsorship deals. While some professional teams have partnerships in the gambling sector, no team had a partnership with an online gaming company, that is until earlier this month. In early January, the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils announced a partnership with Partypoker.com making it the first ever partnership in sports with an online gaming company.

This new partnership deal was made in order to take advantage of the new online gambling industry in New Jersey. Though it is less than 10 weeks old, the online gambling market in New Jersey has lucrative potential as several Atlantic City casinos started offering online gambling in late November. This multi-year deal has already been started as takeovers in arenas have begun. In both the Prudential Center, home of the Devils, and Wells Fargo Center, Sixers stadium, stations have been set up where fans can join and play partypoker.com. Along with these stations, posters and banners have plastered the arenas. Knowing the possible controversy, both sides made a point to say that this partnership has nothing to do with gambling on sports.

From what I can tell, this partnership makes a lot of sense. The market for both professional sports and online gambling is very similar and with an emergence in the online gambling industry, I praise the Sixers and Devils for jumping on this new opportunity. It will be interesting to see if other teams follow this trend and as for me, the way the Sixers are playing, I wouldn’t mind playing some Party Poker during the games.

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Michael Proska is a sophomore at Drexel University from Springfield, PA pursuing a Sport Management degree along with a minor in Statistics. Along with being a writer for the SMTSU blog, The Sports Complex, he has worked at Drexel Athletics and for the Philadelphia 76ers. Michael is also a member of the Army ROTC at Drexel University and the Secretary for the SMTSU.  Follow Michael on Twitter @mikeprosk.

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