Mercury is 1st pro women’s team with sports betting deal

The Phoenix Mercury are partnering with Bally’s Corporation in the first gaming access deal with a professional women’s sports team.

The 15-year agreement, worth $66 million according to a Deadspin report, begins Thursday. It allows Bally’s access to its 15th state for sports betting through a sportsbook expected to be located in downtown Phoenix and online and mobile sports betting services, all promoted in connection with Mercury games.

“We are honored to be a part of such an important milestone in the history of women’s sports,” Soo Kim, Chairman of Bally’s Corporation board of directors said in a statement. “Maintaining and implementing a strong diversity, equity and inclusion program is a cornerstone of Bally’s operational values, and we look forward to promoting those values as part of our sponsorship with the Phoenix Mercury and hope that other major corporations follow in our footsteps.”

Vince Kozar, Mercury chief operating office, said Bally’s support for women’s sports and “all of the pillars we stand for around diversity, equity and inclusion is the reason this works and the reason an investment like this is so meaningful to our organization and our league as a whole.”

The Mercury also were the first WNBA to have a jersey sponsorship in 2009.

“We always like being the first, but we don’t want to be the only,” Kozar said. “This is absolutely an opportunity to continue to grow and change the trajectory of our league and our teams as a whole.

“What it changes is our ability to first and foremost invest back into our busiwith ness. We think if we can invest in terms of strategy and business staff and spending budgets against objectives, that can have long term implications for the state of our business. Too often men’s sports is seen as an investment and women’s sports as a cost. A partnership of this size and this scope and this length allows us to make some of those investments.”

The Phoenix Suns have a separate sports betting partnership with FanDuel that sportsbook to be located at Phoenix Suns Arena.

Arizona’s sports betting law allows for 20 sports betting licenses with up to 10 to be associated with pro sports franchises or facilities and up to 10 associated with federally recognized tribes in the state.

Other Arizona sports betting partnerships so far include the Arizona Diamondbacks with Caesars Sports and DraftKings with TPC Scottsdale.