The PGA Tour and DraftKings announced on Tuesday an expansion of their multi-year contract, and DraftKings will now be the Tour’s first official betting operator. This comes a year after the Tour and DraftKings partnered for the latter to become the tour’s official daily fantasy game.
“The growth in consumption and fan engagement we have seen over the last year in our DraftKings Daily Fantasy games has been tremendous,” said Norb Gambuzza, the PGA Tour’s senior VP of media and gaming. “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.”
According to the release, DraftKings has had a rise in golf bets made on its site since the PGA Tour returned in June. Pro golf is DraftKings’ fourth-most popular sport to wager on.
“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,” said Ezra Kucharz, the chief business officer of DraftKings.
As GOLF.com’s managing editor, Berhow handles the day-to-day and long-term planning of one of the sport’s most-read news and service websites. He spends most of his days writing, editing, planning and wondering if he’ll ever break 80. Before joining GOLF.com in 2015, he worked at newspapers in Minnesota and Iowa. A graduate of Minnesota State University in Mankato, Minn., he resides in the Twin Cities with his wife and two kids. You can reach him at joshua_berhow@golf.com.