- William Hill is the ‘official sports betting partner’ for all CBS Sports platforms.
- The new content will be fantasy and betting specific data.
- CBS Sports is now claiming ‘digital leadership in the sports betting space’.
In a welcome move, CBS Sports will feature enhanced betting related data and content for the upcoming football season. They’ve launched a ‘wide ranging digital content and product integration’ effort along with William Hill US. William Hill is the largest sports betting provider in Nevada and also offers betting to customers in Colorado, Iowa, New Jersey and West Virginia. The company is also ‘the official sports betting partner for all CBS Sports platforms‘.
Here’s how the William Hill US press release explained the partnership:
CBS Sports and William Hill US, the official sports betting partner for all CBS Sports platforms, today announced the rollout of wide-ranging digital content and product integrations to kick off their innovative partnership ahead of the fantasy football season.
Sports bettors and fans will have access to newly created content and offerings, including a new parlay free-to-play game, and extensive odds and data across CBS Sports Digital platforms and within editorial content and video programming. The partnership also delivers relevant educational tools such as prop and bet calculators. Many of the experiences are geared toward enabling sports fans to learn how to make picks for fun, understand sports betting markets, and then go directly to William Hill’s products to complete a betting transaction seamlessly in states where William Hill is available and sports betting has been legally regulated.
The betting data could be useful and it sounds as if they’re determined to teach the half dozen or so American football fans that have never placed a bet how to do so. It’s so cute how all of these companies in newly legal US jurisdictions have to pretend that sports betting hasn’t been ubiquitous for the past couple of decades despite determined efforts by jock sniffing politicians to keep it out. Markets route around interference and that’s clearly what was happening in the US sports betting ecosystem before the Supreme Court struck down PASPA.
After decades where you wouldn’t hear more than a veiled reference to the betting line on CBS Sports football coverage the network is now ‘all in’. Check out this quote from Jeffrey Gerttula, EVP & General Manager, CBS Sports Digital:
“These enhanced sports betting experiences are the result of a true partnership between CBS Sports Digital and William Hill as we write a new playbook for our companies as well as the broader sports media and sports book industries. Together, we will continue to create maximum value for sports bettors and fans by offering completely new and exciting ways to engage with upcoming sports events.”
This blurb from later in the press release sums it up nicely with CBS claiming ‘digital leadership’ in the sports betting space:
As previously announced, the partnership extends CBS Sports’ digital leadership in the sports betting space and allows for the creation of even more relevant content across its wide array of platforms.
Ken Fuchs, President of Digital, William Hill US, obviously knows the score when it comes to sports betting and is far less effusive than his TV network partners:
“Our partnership is a first-of-its-kind, creating an experience geared to the sports fan and fantasy player that showcases William Hill content and products across the CBS Sports Digital landscape. We’re ready for fantasy football season to begin and can’t wait to introduce fans to the future of sports betting while taking their game to the next level.”
You should start to see the new data rolling out over the various CBS digital properties ASAP. The press release even called the extent of the betting data integration ‘groundbreaking’:
The groundbreaking betting product experiences are now rolling out across CBS Sports Digital platforms, spanning CBSSports.com, CBS Sports Fantasy, SportsLine, CBS Sports HQ, and the CBS Sports and CBS Sports Fantasy mobile apps.
In all seriousness, the newfound media acceptance of the trillion dollar worldwide sports betting industry is long overdue and definitely a good thing. Now if only a few more of the new states to regulate sports betting could do a decent job at it….
