The NHL and MGM Resorts International just announced a sports betting partnership.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman (the limit of puns do not exist in this moment but I’ll spare you) announced the deal this morning in a joint press conference with MGM, a Vegas-based casino giant. MGM has also announced a partnership with the NBA earlier this year for $25 million. Though numbers were not disclosed today, the agreement was described to be a multi-year data and marketing agreement. This could include intellectual property of the NHL and eventually even player and puck tracking technology used live during gameplay. These details are still under development as well but we do know that data access has been key to the deal with MGM and NHL releasing a joint statement saying:

“MGM Resorts will alsoreach NHL fans through communications to subscribers from the NHL’s robust fandatabase that will market MGM Resorts’ portfolio of destination resort brands,as well as promote MGM Resorts’ M life Rewards program, which currently has 31million members.”

Meaning NHL will be sharing fan data with MGM and vice versa for MGM rewards members, even if you are not someone who has bet in the past with former NHL betting partners, DraftKings.

In addition to the above info, other points discussed in the press conference include:

• Betting in Canada, where laws are less clear and exist in a grey area controlled by individual provinces. The majority of Canadian sports betting is done through offshore companies, and somewhat illegally but Canada as of right now is not involved in this deal for the most part.
• Online vs physical kiosks: Bettman expressed that he does foresee or advocate for physical kiosks, though they will exist in Vegas and New Jersey. He is aiming at the mobile betting market, which has skyrocketed in recent history and appears to be the future of sports betting.
• Player integrity: as of now, there will be no integrity fee for the NHL players. The Players Association has expressed an interest to be involved in the brokering of the deal to ensure that there will not be in games thrown in the wake of the new money coming in.

I’m sure there will be more to come in the next days and weeks about the details but as for now, this is a big ol’ deal that our commissioner is BETTing on. (Ok, only one pun).