Pros shunned sports bets 1 year ago. Now, leagues are all-in

American professional sports leagues used to fight sports betting as an existential threat until the U.S. Supreme Court handed them a loss. They widely lost again when state legislatures rejected their pleas to be cut in on the action under new laws.

Now, nearly a year after the high court cleared the way for any state to choose whether to take wagers, the leagues have completely changed their tune to embrace the private deals offered via legalized sports gambling, both in young markets and prospective ones.

Numerous sports have inked marketing deals with gambling companies to become official sports betting providers, agreements that include a lot of cross-promotion and the ability for sportsbooks to use a wealth of official league data, which often goes beyond offerings of other providers.

Richard Seymour, former NFL football defensive tackle who played for the New England Patriots and Oakland Raiders, listens during a keynote speech by former New Orleans Saint kicker and Hall of Fame enshrinee Morten Andersen during the Betting On Sports America conference, Thursday, April 25, 2019, in Secaucus, N.J. (AP PhotoJulio Cortez)

Leagues and even individual teams now have employees whose main job is to seek out new business opportunities involving sports betting. An example: Major League Soccer is considering putting the names of bookmakers on player jerseys.

What a difference a year makes.

Only Nevada had offered bets on single games before May 14, 2018, when the Supreme Court struck down a law that had limited sports betting to four states that met a 1991 deadline to legalize it, siding with a challenge brought by New Jersey.

Joe Januszewski, CRO and executive vice president of the Texas Rangers baseball team, speaks during a panel discussion talking about sponsorship revenue during the Betting On Sports America conference, Thursday, April 25, 2019, in Secaucus, N.J. (AP PhotoJulio Cortez)

Now, eight states offer sports gambling, a few others are close to legalizing and dozens more are considering it.

Keith Wachtel, executive vice president of the National Hockey League, said the Supreme Court ruling changed his league's view "drastically."

"It created an opportunity for fan engagement. Our data gives us a new opportunity to look at sports betting, and it opens up a whole new amount of data for our fans," he said. "Player speed, hardest shot: you can (soon) bet on those things."

New Orleans Saints NFL football kicker and Hall of Fame enshrinee Morten Andersen gestures after giving a keynote speech during the Betting On Sports America conference, Thursday, April 25, 2019, in Secaucus, N.J. (AP PhotoJulio Cortez)

Joe Januszewski, executive vice president of baseball's Texas Rangers, said his game has long been known as "a slow, languid, unfolding pace game" that has been trying — with mixed results — to get younger people interested.

"With the next set of fans, that may not speak to them," he said. "We look at the burgeoning gambling and betting space to make our game more engaging for a whole new audience. The expansion of betting is how baseball is going to evolve in the 21st century."

Likewise, Scott Kaufman-Ross, head of fantasy sports and gaming for the NBA, is excited by ever-more involved fans.

James Kilsby, left, vice president of American operations for Gambling Compliance, speaks as Andrew Winchell, right, director of government affairs for FanDuel, listens during a panel discussion talking about which U.S. states are on the cusp of legalizing sports betting during the Betting On Sports America conference, Thursday, April 25, 2019, in Secaucus, N.J. (AP PhotoJulio Cortez)

"We know the person watching basketball is the most likely person to bet on basketball," he said. "And the person betting on basketball is more likely to watch more basketball."

Speaking Wednesday and Thursday at the Betting on Sports America conference, league and team officials unanimously embraced an industry they once fought so hard. Concerns about integrity and scandal have given way to optimism about licensing deals and surging fan bases.

Significantly, most executives said sports betting revenue is minor compared with broadcast rights and ticket sales. Its real potential, they said, is drawing new customers.

"Sports betting is about fan engagement," said Bill Ordower, executive vice president of Major League Soccer. "The revenue is second. We're excited about new ways for fans to connect. If you're betting on a game, you're more engaged with it."

Wachtel, the NHL executive, said part of that is because legalized sports betting is still relatively small.

"Look five years down the road where projections are that 40 percent of the country will be able to bet on a mobile device," he said. "That's a scale we haven't been able to reach."

Shelly Cayette, vice president of global partnerships for the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers, said the challenge includes unifying the focus on sports betting toward fans.

"It's now getting everybody to see clearly that sports betting is a platform that allows the sport of basketball to grow, and that's our goal," she said. "We can't stay in business unless we continue to grow. And we now get to engage more with our fan base."

In one 24-hour period last fall, the National Basketball Association partnered with Sportradar and Genius Sports to distribute NBA betting data to sports betting providers in the U.S., and Major League Baseball partnered with MGM Resorts to become an official gambling partner in the U.S. and Japan. MGM Resorts previously reached similar deals with the NBA, WNBA and NHL, and has a deal with the NFL's New York Jets to promote its properties and mobile app to fans.

FanDuel joined with the NHL and its New Jersey Devils franchise shortly before that for sports betting and fantasy sports play, and additional deals have since been inked.

Even teams in states where sports betting is not yet legal are engaging in talks with gambling companies to be ready to move quickly if legalization happens in their states, executives said.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Russia has moved some troops onto an airbase in Niger where a small number of U.S. forces remain, but Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he doesn't see it as a significant issue. Most American troops left that base in the nation's capital, Niamey, a U.S. official said.

The arrival of Russian trainers in the West African country about three weeks ago came in the wake of Niger’s decision to order out all U.S. troops. The order dealt a blow to U.S. military operations in the Sahel, a vast region south of the Sahara desert where groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group operate.

The Pentagon has said the U.S. troops will depart but has not provided a timeline.

When Russian troops arrived last month, it was unclear where they were staying. The Niamey base, Austin said late Thursday, is located at the capital city's Diori Hamani International Airport, and “the Russians are in a separate compound and don’t have access to U.S. forces or access to our equipment.”

He said the U.S. will continue to watch the situation but he doesn't see it as a significant force protection issue.

A U.S. official said the Russian forces are on the other side of the Niamey facility, known as Airbase 101, and that other international forces — such as the Germans and Italians — also reside. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss troop movements. It's unclear how many U.S. troops remain at the Niamey base.

The Russian presence on the base comes as tensions remain high between Washington and Moscow over the ongoing U.S. support for Ukraine's military.

About 1,000 U.S. troops are still in Niger, but the bulk of them moved to what's called Airbase 201 near Agadez, some 920 kilometers (550 miles) away from the capital, not long after mutinous soldiers ousted the country’s democratically elected president last July.

A few months later, the ruling junta asked French forces to leave and turned to the Russian mercenary group Wagner for security assistance.

In October, Washington officially designated the military takeover as a coup, which triggered U.S. laws restricting the military support and aid that it can provide to Niger. Since then, diplomatic efforts to restore ties with Niger have been unsuccessful.

Until recently, Washington considered Niger a key partner and ally in a region swept by coups in recent years, investing millions of dollars in the Agadez base, which has been critical to U.S. counterterrorism operations in the Sahel. The U.S. also has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in training Niger’s military since it began operations there in 2013.

The Pentagon also has said the U.S. will relocate most of the approximately 100 forces it has deployed in neighboring Chad for now. Chad is also considering whether to continue its security agreement with the U.S.

Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, told reporters that the departure from Chad "is a temporary step as part of the ongoing review of our security cooperation, which will resume after Chad’s May 6th presidential election.”

FILE - Supporters of Niger's ruling junta gather for a protest called to fight for the country's freedom and push back against foreign interference, in Niamey, Niger, Aug. 3, 2023. Russia has moved some troops onto an airbase in Niger where a small number of U.S. forces remain after most American troops left the base in Niamey, the nation's capital, a U.S. official said Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick, File)