FOS PM: Turner’s New Betting Partners

DraftKings and Turner Sports have a new multi-year agreement to make the former the exclusive sportsbook and daily fantasy sports providers across “select Turner Sports and Bleacher Report properties” outside of NBA programming. 

Turner also has a separate new deal with FanDuel around NBA content. 

Activations with DraftKings will include original content, integration of DraftKings’ betting odds and daily fantasy stats across Turner telecasts and Bleacher Report’s digital channels, including its popular app and the B/R Betting vertical, which will lead to personalized automated alerts. 

For FanDuel, the deal grants access to “exclusive integrations” within NBA content, including TNT live telecasts and Bleacher Report digital channels. The partnership already began during the 2020 NBA Playoffs.

Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey is stepping down after 13 years with the organization. The news comes after a tumultuous season sparked by his tweet in support of anti-government protesters in Hong Kong last October. 

Morey reportedly is not ruling out returning to the NBA with another team, but “has become increasingly determined to explore what else might interest him professionally,” according to ESPN.

Separately, former Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Ty Lue has agreed to a five-year deal to become head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers. Lue replaces Doc Rivers, who parted with the organization after the team was bounced in the second round of the 2020 playoffs — Rivers was hired as the Philadelphia 76ers’ head coach three days later.

The NCAA has issued a request to the Supreme Court to review a circuit court ruling in the case Alston v. NCAA. The ruling found that the NCAA violated antitrust law by limiting the amount of education related benefits — like money to cover the cost of computers — that athletes could procure.

The request referenced a prior Supreme Court ruling in which the court found that the amateur and student nature of college athletes differentiates it from professional sports, and therefore is essential to college sports.

Antitrust law has recently haunted the NCAA, as it could threaten the governing body’s ability to keep college athletes — particularly in revenue-generating sports — as amateurs.