PGA Partners with New Integrity Programs
Author:
Jacob McKenzie
Doing good: the world of golf’s highly renowned PGA Tour has revealed that it will be expanding its integrity program by stepping into a new partnership with US Integrity, while simultaneously prolonging its existing deal with Genius Sports. The PGA Tour Integrity Program was first established in 2018 and spans all facets of the tour’s operations.
The PGA Tour is expanding its integrity program via a new partnership with US Integrity, while also extending its existing deal with Genius Sports. ©bedrck/Pixabay
US Integrity to Provide Additional Integrity Monitoring Services
Golf fans around the globe are undoubtedly familiar with the PGA Tour, and will likely be pleased to hear that it has just announced that it will be broadening its integrity program thanks to a new partnership with US Integrity, as well as prolonging its already existing deal with sports data technology provider Genius Sports.
Initially launched in January 2018, the PGA Tour Integrity Program spans all aspects of competition and operations handled by the PGA Tour, including the likes of its players and their support teams, tournament staff and volunteers, all Tour employees, and finally the PGA Tour Policy Board.
As a result of the deal, US Integrity will furnish over additional integrity-monitoring services through its proprietary dashboard to aid in the process of proactively identifying irregular contest-level, officiating, and wagering patterns by carrying out analysis across data sets.
Finally, the PGA Tour will continue to collaborate closely with Genius Sports with the goal of building tailored educational programs for players, caddies, and officials. These educational workshops will zone in on the risks related to betting-related corruption, while separate custom e-learning modules will be made available to PGA Tour players worldwide in many different languages.
PGA Tour Looks Forward to Continuing to Ensure Integrity of Tournament; Partners are all Fully On Board
To mark the occasion, PGA Tour vice president of gaming Scott Warfield emphasized US Integrity’s similar commitment to maintaining the integrity of professional golf, praising in particular their productive work ethic:
“We are excited to partner with US Integrity, as we look to continue ensuring the integrity of the PGA Tour. US Integrity along with Genius Sports’ commitment to protecting our sport, as well as their proactive approach, will play a pivotal role in assisting our operations with monitoring sports betting across our Tours.”– Scott Warfield, Vice President of Gaming, PGA Tour, Press Release
For its part, US Integrity’s chief executive and co-founder Matthew Holt restated the group’s mission, stressing how partnerships like the one between it and the PGA Tour are vital for preserving the integrity of sports in general:
“US Integrity’s mission is to provide conflict-free, best-in-class insights and compliance solutions to our clients. We are looking forward to working with the premier golf tour in the world, featuring the biggest names. All our partners are committed to the highest integrity standards, and they are no exception. These types of partnerships help ensure sports betting integrity and strengthen the unique and proprietary anomaly-detection tools we have developed at US Integrity.”– Matthew Holt, Chief Executive and Co-Founder, Us Integrity, Press Release
Finally, last but not least, Genius Sports’ head of integrity partnerships Stephen Thurley positioned the partnership expansion by arguing that it would enable the PGA Tour to remain up-to-date with the latest integrity measures in the United States.
“As the sports betting landscape rapidly evolves across the US, it is imperative that sports are proactive in protecting the integrity of their competitions. This partnership ensures the PGA Tour continues to benefit from Genius Sports’ Bet Monitoring technology and Education services, as well as utilizing ‘Genius Intelligence,’ our ground-breaking fraud detection management system.”– Stephen Thurley, Head of Integrity Partnershops, Genius Sports, Press Release
PGA Partnered with DraftKings and BetMGM Back in August 2020
All the way back in August 2020, the PGA Tour announced that it had secured several deals with major sports betting operators such as BetMGM and DraftKings to begin offering sports betting on golf – which happened to arrive just ahead of the launch of the Players Championship golf tournament.
Both DraftKings and BetMGM became official sports betting partners of the PGA Tour. Major stakeholders in the PGA Tour were concerned with maintaining viewership at the time, perhaps due to the news arriving during the peak of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) global pandemic. The subject of integrating sports betting data and odds into broadcasted games was therefore being hotly debated at the time.
In a shared statement at the time, Norb Gambuzza, PGA Tour Senior Vice President of Media and Gaming, cited recent growth in DraftKings fan engagement and consumption as large driving forces behind the partnership:
“The PGA TOUR couldn’t be more pleased with growing our collaboration with DraftKings. The growth in consumption and fan engagement we have seen over the last year in our DraftKings Daily Fantasy games has been tremendous. 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.”
Genius Sports Joined Up with Canadian Football League (CFL) in December 2021
In slightly more recent news, Genius Sports and the Canadian Football League (CFL) entered into a new long-term partnership back in December 2021. Genius earned the rights to utilize the CFL’s data and video content with sportsbooks in international markets.
CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie praised the deal on multiple fronts – not just as a pure marketing deal, but also as a new way for fans to connect with the league:
“Our partnership with Genius Sports has the potential to launch a new era for the CFL. It provides access to the technology and tools we need to engage our existing fans, and reach new ones, in exciting, innovative and highly customized ways. This goes beyond transforming our marketing. It can redefine our relationship with fans, partners and other key stakeholders, here in Canada and globally.”
