MSG Backs Safer Gambling Campaign
Author:
Jacob McKenzie
Madison Square Garden Sports (MSG Sports) and Madison Square Garden Entertainment (MSG Entertainment) have announced that they are throwing their support behind the American Gaming Association’s (AGA) ‘Have A Game Plan. Bet Responsibly’ safer gambling campaign. The campaign is an extension of the ‘Have A Game Plan’ project, which initially went live in late 2019.
Madison Square Garden Sports (MSG Sports) and Madison Square Garden Entertainment (MSG Entertainment) have pledged their support to the American Gaming Association’s (AGA) ‘Have A Game Plan. Bet Responsibly’ safer gambling campaign. ?andrew_scozzari/Pixabay
Campaign Focuses on Four Core Principles of Gambling
Two divisions of the world-famous New York City-venue Madison Square Garden, Madison Square Garden Sports (MSG Sports) and Madison Square Garden Entertainment (MSG Entertainment), have announced that they are supporting the American Gaming Association’s (AGA) ‘Have A Game Plan. Bet Responsibly’ campaign.
The campaign was first launched as part of the AGA’s Responsible Gaming Education Week in September. It is in fact an extension of its ‘Have A Game Plan’ project which first started in late 2019, the purpose of which was to educate sports fans on the main points of responsible sports betting.
The ‘Have A Game Plan. Bet Responsibly’ campaign will center around the four core principles of responsible gambling: setting a budget and sticking to it, keeping betting social, knowing your odds, and only playing through trusted, regulated operators.
Both MSG Sports and MSG Entertainment will use in-arena advertisements to activate the campaign, through digital media with the help of National Basketball Association (NBA) team the New York Knicks and National Hockey League (NHL) franchise the New York Rangers, as well as on-air through the MSG Network.
The campaign’s reach is likely to go far and wide, seeing as MSG Sports owns both the Knicks and Rangers, as well as a litany of other sports assets. For its part, MSG Entertainment runs a collection of major venues, including Madison Square Garden itself — the home base of the Knicks and Rangers.
MSG Sports and MSG Entertainment Join Other Brands Supporting Campaign
Executive vice president of marketing partnerships at MSG Entertainment, Ron Skotarczak, stressed the importance of providing resources on safer gambling in parallel to the growth of regulated sports gaming:
“With the continued growth of legal sports gaming throughout the tri-state area, it’s a priority for MSG Sports and MSG Entertainment to ensure that fans and viewers have access to educational resources on how to wager responsibly. Providing a platform to amplify Have A Game Plan is essential to our strategy and supporting future growth in this industry.”– Ron Skotarczak, Executive Vice President of Marketing Partnerships, MSG Entertainment
The American Gaming Association’s (AGA) senior vice president Casey Clark evoked Madison Square Garden’s prominent role in the New York sports scene as a key factor in helping advance safer gambling:
“MSG is a fixture in the New York sports market, and we are proud to have them join Have A Game Plan. MSG’s unique activations further support our goal of convening the sports betting ecosystem around a common message to advance responsible gaming.”– Casey Clark, Senior Vice President, American Gaming Association (AGA)
However, MSG Sports and MSG Entertainment are far from the only brands supporting the AGA’s safer betting campaign. Ever since it first launched in 2019 under a different name, it has earned the backing of golf’s PGA Tour, Nascar, the NHL and National Football League teams the New York Jets and Washington Football Team, and many more sports organizations.
Not only does the AGA’s campaign have the support of major US sports teams and leagues — it also has the backing of gambling operators such as DraftKings, Entain and FanDuel, as well as Rush Street Interactive (RSI), MGM Resorts and BetMGM.
AGA Predicted Record NFL Wagers in September 2021
Back in September 2021, the American Gaming Association released a fascinating report in which it revealed that a whopping 45.2 million Americans planned to wager on the upcoming National Football League (NFL) season, representing a 36% increase in comparison to last year’s NFL season.
A large contributing factor to this stark increase is quite simply the wider availability of legal sports betting across the United States, with at least 26 states, including Washington D.C. now offering regulated sports betting channels. Last NFL season — there were only 18 states offering the same options.
The president and CEO of the American Gaming Association (AGA) cited this same reason in the group’s report on its findings concerning upcoming NFL betting patterns, emphasizing how more Americans than ever will have the opportunity to wager safely through licensed operators:
“Sports betting is more popular than ever among Americans, and the enthusiasm of bettors for the upcoming NFL season highlights the remarkable growth of the industry over the past three years. Importantly, when the 2021 NFL season begins, more than 111m American adults will be able to wager safely with regulated sportsbooks in their home states rather than with the predatory illegal market.”
PointsBet Appointed Safer Gambling Lead in September
Many sportsbook operators across the US are taking note of the increasing trend of legalized, regulated sports betting, with PointsBet announcing in June 2021 the appointment of Teresa Fiore as the new manager of its responsible service of gambling and corporate social responsibility programs.
Fiore has nearly five years’ work experience in the responsible gambling industry, having spent time at the Massachusetts Gaming Commission for part of this period in her career.
While at the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, she spearheaded the state’s GameSense responsible gaming program, which serves over 300,000 players yearly across the Bay State.
