Get used to the Lion on the Wall.
The Red Sox announced a brand-new casino partnership on Friday, entering a multi-year agreement with MGM Resorts International.
Signs of the new deal will be impossible to miss for Red Sox fans this season, with the global entertainment, gaming and hotel company’s roaring lion’s head logo appearing on Fenway Park’s Green Monster. Other signage, including behind home plate, will be prominent and the MGM Resorts’ brand will be featured, according to a press release, on “Red Sox radio and other team controlled media outlets,” which likely means the NESN TV network.
The press release also mentioned that “VIP gameday hospitality” will be occurring at Fenway Park and that MGM Resorts shall now be known as the “official and exclusive resort casino of the Boston Red Sox.”
In addition, the club’s annual Winter Weekend will head west to Springfield, to be held next January and subsequent Januarys at the MGM Springfield casino, which opened last year.
The ball club’s five-year deal with Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Conn., expired at the end of 2018.
In a press release, Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy said, “This is such a natural partnership for our two brands. MGM has set the standard in the hospitality and entertainment industry and their recent expansion into the Commonwealth makes them a clear partner. We are thrilled to welcome them to the Red Sox family and look forward to a long collaboration.”
MGM Resorts chairman and CEO Jim Murren, a native of Fairfield, Conn., and Trinity College graduate, said “We are excited to enter into this historic partnership with the Boston Red Sox. Combining the two iconic brands of the Red Sox and MGM Resorts will create a new one-of-a-kind fan experience for baseball fans unique to not only New England and MGM Springfield but the rest of the country. We look forward to continuing our work and partnerships in the world of professional sports and building on our success as an entertainment leader throughout the United States.”
MGM Resorts has made a strong push to associate itself with the professional sports leagues. Shortly after Thanksgiving last year, Major League Baseball forged its own historic multi-year partnership with MGM Resorts International, its first ever with a gaming company. MGM Resorts International already had partnered with the NBA and the NHL.
Aspects of the MLB deal with its “Official Gaming Partner” include MGM Resorts brand sharing — the Oakland A’s will be wearing roaring lion logo patches on their uniforms for the season opener against the Mariners in Japan later this month — as well as other promotional opportunities and data-sharing for gaming purposes.
Long leery of any association with gambling because of the Black Sox scandal of 100 years ago and the Pete Rose betting saga, MLB has joined the other professional sports leagues in embracing legal sports betting. A Supreme Court ruling last May opened the door to each of the 49 states besides Nevada, where sports betting has been legal since the 1940s, to allow sports betting if it so chooses. To date, seven other states besides Nevada offer legal sports betting, with each state offering a varying array of safeguards and betting options that include mobile betting as well as traditional sports book betting inside casinos.
Massachusetts will explore passage this legislative session of a handful of sports wagering bills, including one filed by Governor Charlie Baker.
Rhode Island is the sole New England state to offer sports betting, and it may soon decide to expand its mobile wagering component. Legislatures in Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine and New York are considering their own sports wagering legislation.
