William Hill CBS Sports deal includes access to fantasy platform
Operator gains access to the media giant's fantasy platform with Hills branding and odds to be used
William Hill has signed a media deal with CBS Sports to display its betting content across all of the media giant’s platform.
The operator has exclusive rights to promote its brand across CBS Sports’ digital platforms including its fantasy product CBS Sports Fantasy.
CBS will continue to utilise Hills’ odds in its betting content while also featuring new content produced from within the operator’s retail sportsbooks around the US.
Hills’ data and odds will also be displayed on CBS Sports’ national TV shows.
Integration of the deal will begin in March with a full roll out planned for the fantasy football season.
EVP and GM for CBS Sports Digital Jeffrey Gerttula said: “We’re thrilled to launch this momentous partnership, which will allow us to deepen our investment and further extend our leadership in delivering multiplatform sports wagering content, while providing William Hill with unprecedented reach for their market-leading betting platform as they continue to grow their industry-leading US business.”
“The power of our distribution, combined with the strength of our brands and the expertise of William Hill, has us well positioned to tap into the explosive growth of the legal sports betting industry in the US,” Gerttula said.
William Hill US CEO Joe Asher said: “We are excited about this partnership, with assets including mass-reach digital content products, one of the largest fantasy sports databases and platforms in the world, and leading sports television programming, which will allow us to expand the William Hill brand across America quickly and efficiently.”
The deal appears to be similar to that of Yahoo and BetMGM in that it will see the media platform advertise the betting brand but without any deeper integration.
One industry executive speaking off the record questioned whether the deal would serve to convert CBS Sports viewers effectively to William Hill.
“And now the question is, much like the Barstool deal, how many of these users are actually in sports-legal states and how they will put a funnel in place to convert them?” The exec said.
Although the statement did not give any financial details one firm that had approached CBS about a potential media partnership said it was looking for seven digit minimum commitments.
In January, William Hill announced it had surpassed profit expectations in 2019 boosted by strong profit margin in Q4
Last May, The Stars Group announced the US betting industry’s first major media partnership as it signed to produce Fox Bet in partnership with Fox Sports.
Penn National Gaming last month paid $163m in cash and stock for a 36% stake in media company Barstool Sports
The operator’s shares were up 4.8% this afternoon as the market closed in London.