NBA Last 90 details
The National Basketball Association (NBA) has fully embraced sports betting and is now ready to get in on the action. The league announced that a new virtual sports betting game is in the works. Titled NBA Last 90, the new game will provide players with simulated footage of a game between two NBA teams. The footage will be of the last 90 seconds of a fictitious game and players will wager on what will take place. The game is set to launch next season in the United States and Europe.
The new virtual sports betting game is being created for the NBA by Highlight Games Limited. The game supplier will use highlights from recent NBA seasons to create a story about what transpires during the final 90 seconds of a simulated game.
Contestants will be able to wager on several facets of the fictitious game, including the winning team, who scores with the first possession, and what the total points are for each team by the end of the game. The title will use a random number generator to determine the outcomes of the games.
The head of fantasy and gaming for the NBA, Scott Kaufman-Ross, said: “We’ve been looking at this the past couple years and were really surprised to see how popular this was. In Europe, we’re especially excited about using virtual as another way to engage with our fans with alternative content, especially given the time-zone challenges we have in the region.”
With the launch, the NBA will be the first major sports league in the United States to offer services in the virtual sports betting market.
Sports betting advertising
The news of the virtual sports betting game comes just one month after the NBA started allowing sports betting advertising on their broadcasts and digital content distribution. According to VSO News, the NBA has been working with broadcast partners and sportsbook operators to begin implementing the ads. The goal is to provide the advertisements in a sensible way that is not overwhelming to the audience.
According to Kaufman-Ross, questions arose when determining how the advertisements should be presented. Such questions included whether the ads should be placed on platforms that can be geo-targeted to places where sports betting is legalized or via local stations with local availabilities.
As sports betting continues to grow and be legalized in more states across the nation, national broadcasting will become more of a viable option. For now, the NBA is trying to find the right balance in advertising.