Sportsbook operator DraftKings has been appointed as the PGA TOUR’s first Official Betting Operator following the expansion of the two organisations’ multi-year content and marketing relationship this week.

In July 2019, DraftKings became the TOUR’s first Official Daily Fantasy Game of the PGA TOUR as part of that multi-year, exclusive arrangement.

Norb Gambuzza, PGA TOUR Senior Vice President, Media and Gaming, commented: “The PGA TOUR couldn’t be more pleased with growing our collaboration with DraftKings. The growth in consumption and fan engagement we have seen over the last year in our DraftKings Daily Fantasy games has been tremendous. 

“The expansion of the relationship to now include sports betting is a natural evolution and one which fully supports and promotes the PGA TOUR’s objectives of reaching and engaging new segments of fans while introducing them to our players, tournaments and media platforms.”

By becoming the first to join the TOUR’s Official Betting Operator program, DraftKings will have rights in the US to use PGA TOUR trademarks and to advertise within TOUR media and TOUR partner platforms. Additionally it will gain content and video rights allowing DraftKings’ Sportsbook solution to create pre-game and post-game betting programming, as well as distribution of highlights to users who have placed bets.

“DraftKings and the PGA TOUR have continued to make history with the innovative additions to our agreement which began last year,” said Ezra Kucharz, Chief Business Officer of DraftKings. 

“We are excited to further our relationship with the PGA TOUR as their first Official Betting Operator as well. Golf has been an especially important outlet for fan engagement over these past few months, and this latest collaboration is a significant next step for both the golf and gaming industries.”

Several of the most popularly bet PGA TOUR events in DraftKings company history have occurred since the TOUR’s return in June. Currently, in terms of sports betting, golf is DraftKings’ fourth most popular sport.

Following the Supreme Court’s repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in 2018, the TOUR instituted an integrity program in collaboration with Genius Sports to protect its competitions from betting-related corruption. Later that year, the TOUR announced a global partnership with IMG ARENA to license its official, live scoring data to betting operators all over the world.

In July 2019, following an update to its sponsorship policies in the gaming category, the TOUR partnered with DraftKings to relaunch “PGA TOUR DraftKings Fantasy Golf” with exclusive intellectual property to differentiate DraftKings in the daily fantasy space. This past March, The Action Network and the PGA TOUR announced the launch of GolfBet, a first-of-its-kind, golf-focused betting content platform.