In what is believed to be a Power 5 first, the University of Colorado athletic department will add a sports betting outlet to its list of corporate sponsors.
The five-year agreement is with PointsBet, an Australian sportsbook that's establishing a North American headquarters in Denver, 30 miles from the CU campus in Boulder.
“We certainly talked to the NCAA and we talked to the Pac-12 prior to us coming to an agreement on this,” CU athletic director Rick George stated during a Tuesday conference call, as reported by The Denver Post. “If you look at (peer schools), there are casinos that are [adjacent to collegiate] venues, some in our league and some in other leagues. So yeah, we thought it was important that we should make sure and reach out to the Pac-12 and to the NCAA prior to moving forward on this.”
Colorado is one of 18 states, along with the District of Columbia, in which sports betting is legal. However, neither Folsom Field nor the CU Event Center will house betting kiosks, George said. Instead, the PointsBet partnership will include signage at both facilities and that the deal “covers the entire gaming category, including free-to-play sports games, daily fantasy sports, casino, online casino, and retail and online sports betting.”
According to The Post, CU’s announcement turned heads nationally because of the NCAA’s long-held rules prohibiting student-athletes, coaches and related staff from participating in sports wagering, and because of several high-profile collegiate scandals over the decades that involved game-fixing or point-fixing. The NCAA website proclaims that sports betting “has the potential to undermine the integrity of sports contests and jeopardizes the well-being of student-athletes and the intercollegiate athletics community.”
PointsBet recently announced a similar sponsorship arrangement with Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, owners of the Nuggets (NBA), Avalanche (NHL) and Colorado Mammoth (National Lacrosse League).
