BetMGM Partners with The Athletic

On Thursday, BetMGM and The Athletic announced a multi-year partnership, allowing BetMGM to becomes the media companies exclusive sports betting partner. As sports betting continues to grow in the U.S., The Athletic will begin to shift content towards the sports betting landscape and create The Athletic Betting Hub.

Evan Parker, The Athletic’s General Manager of Content Operations, said in a statement, “As we collaborate on this new venture, we share a joint vision for how to seamlessly blend media, analysis, and betting into unique, premium experiences for The Athletic subscribers.”

BetMGM and The Athletic plan to integrate further in-depth content on sports betting between them. Media companies continue to expand into sports betting content and create partnerships with sportsbooks. The Atheltic joined the party on Thursday with the new partnership.

Partnership Details

The new betting hub coming to The Athletic will feature live odds and exclusive offers courtesy of BetMGM. This will include betting analysis and reporting across The Athletic’s written, audio, and video platforms. BetMGM and The Atheltic are also looking to create a unique betting experience for sports fans across all digital and social platforms.

After being founded in 2016, The Athletic has turned into a giant sports media company with over 400 full-time writers and 100 podcast contributors covering more than 300 professional sports teams in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. BetMGM is currently operating in 10 states with more to come and is currently one of the best betting apps on the market with friendly odds and a unique betting experience.

The partnership between BetMGM and The Athletic will help grow both brands as sports betting expands across the U.S. and Canada.

What Does This Mean for Other Media Companies?

This is a surprise that The Athletic took this long to partner with a sports betting operator. However, partnering with BetMGM was the right move to make for the sports media giant. Although The Athletic laid off writers last year, due to Covid-19, it has continued to grow and make the partnership happen.

This is not the first media partnership for BetMGM, however. In October 2019, BetMGM partnered with Yahoo Sports, which now powers sports betting for the online media company. BetMGM and Yahoo made the partnership happen thanks to Yahoo’s stronghold in fantasy sports.

Expect more sports media companies to continue to create partnerships with sports betting operators. Media giants like ESPN, CBS Sports, NBC Sports, and others have formed a partnership with sportsbooks to offer live odds and betting analysis to help grow sports betting content.

Sports media companies could become more creative with how sports betting content is consumed as the industry expands and more partnerships form.

Last Monday, Bleacher Report and DraftKings hosted a Super Bowl prop bet reveal show, where DraftKings released the more than 200 prop bets that will be available for the Big Game. The show featured celebrity guests and analysis on the prop bets available and streamed across all Bleacher Report platforms.

These are just many ways how some companies will deliver sports betting content. There is also a chance that some betting operators go down the Barstool Sports route and create content in-house. Although Barstool Sportsbook evolved off Barstool Sports instead of the other way around, there could come a time when operators like BetMGM, DraftKings, and others begin to create betting content from within.

The Athletic and BetMGM partnership shows the potential that sports betting can bring.