Professional Sports Partnerships Critical, Invaluable Tool For Tribes

SAN DIEGO — About a year before the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation announced that it had purchased the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, advertisements for the tribe and its Southern California casino were abundant at Allegiant Stadium on its opening day.

A founding partner of the stadium and the NFL Raiders, the tribe figured its presence in the biggest sports venue in Las Vegas could help drive customers to its flagship San Bernardino property. Besides signage, the tribe made a deal for the naming rights of one of four lounges at Allegiant Stadium, which opened July 31, 2020. At the time, the tribe also had a partnership with the NHL’s Golden Knights.

“Our play was simple, Southern Californians go to Nevada and we know that Californians are Raiders fans, so we wanted them to know who we were and what we offer,” Peter Arceo, chief gaming officer for the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation, said Tuesday. “It also gave us a chance to show them that tribes aren’t always what you think, tribes can be successful in business. … Sports can be a great platform.”

Arceo joined three other panelists and moderator Francis Keyser, SVP of product for IGT, on a panel titled “Optimizing the Fan Experience in Sports & Casino Partnerships” at the Indian Gaming Association (IGA) annual conference. The goal of the panel was to explore how tribes can benefit from relationships with professional sports teams.

Partnerships create synergy

The Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation is no stranger to pro sports partnerships — in California, it has sponsorship agreements with the MLB Dodgers, NHL Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings, the MLS Galaxy and Los Angeles Football Club, Santa Anita Racetrack, and the Rose Bowl and UCLA.

But when the Golden Knights became Las Vegas’ first pro sports franchise in 2017, it presented an opportunity for the tribe to expand its reach. It did so — and then bought the Palms, creating a whole new kind of synergy for the tribe, its fans, and the Las Vegas sports scene.

“I think given the platform that sports teams and arenas have,” they make key partners, Arceo said. “Before we had the Palms, we had partnerships with the Raiders and Golden Knights. It was very important to us to have a big footprint at Allegiant.”

The addition of the Palms not only meant that the tribe could market its Yaamava Casino to sports fans in Nevada, but that it could market a Las Vegas Yaamava experience to Southern Californians.

The example goes beyond the extent of most tribal-sports team partnerships, but it illustrates how both entities can leverage and benefit from the relationship.

LAFC stayed away from predictions

The Los Angeles Football Club is the tribe’s most recent partner — and another example of one formed before there was a team on the field. As with the Raiders, the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation signed on with the MLS club long before there was a team on the field.

“They invited us early and we really saw the way that they wanted to connect with community,” Arceo said. “They didn’t have a team or a stadium or anything yet. So, having that unique ability to be part of something before it launches, we were able to really assess how it would fit.” Arceo said the tribe was impressed with the group’s community-first mantra.

The tribe officially signed on in May 2018, the year the club debuted. Fast forward seven years to the rise of sports event contracts on prediction markets. Companies like Kalshi and Polymarket — which tribes and states say encroach on their sovereignty — in recent months have signed sponsorship deals with the MLS, Major League Baseball, and the NHL.

San Manuel has been at the forefront of the tribal fight against prediction markets. Counsel Michael Hoenig is on the legal team filing tribal amicus briefs that support states and explain how the federally markets intrude on sovereignty. Arceo approached LAFC to explain where the tribe stood in relation to prediction markets and asked it not to partner with them. Twenty-four hours after his presentation, he said, LAFC was approached by a prediction market about a partnership. The team declined, citing its relationship with the tribe.

Gamers, sports fans both competitive

Across the country, tribes partner with professional sports teams. From the Connecticut Mohegan Tribe’s ownership of the WNBA Connecticut Suns (which is being sold to the Tillman J. Fertitta Family) to the Washington Muckleshoot Indian Tribe’s partnerships with the MLB Mariners, NFL Seahawks, and NHL Kraken, it’s nearly impossible to watch a professional sporting event without catching a glimpse of Indian Country.

In Minnesota, the Grand Mille Lac Tribe is in the first year of partnering with the NHL Wild. Tracy Sam, GM of the tribe’s Grand Casino Mille Lacs, said the partnership brings a new level of recognition to her tribe. At a game last year, the partners along with FanDuel Sports Network and the Midwest Indigenous Nations Immersion Network produced an Ojibwe-language broadcast. Sam said her tribe invited Minnesota’s other tribes to participate in Native American Heritage Night, where tribal members played drums on the ice, and it was “really cool.”

Part of the deal is naming rights to the Wild’s arena, but the location inside the arena where patrons can learn about the Mille Lac’s history and culture is equally important to the tribe. Partnering with the team, Sam said, gives her tribe a kind of credibility and exposure not available anywhere else.

Sam said the partnership makes perfect sense — gamers and those who support sports are “competitive and like the excitement.” LAFC Chief Technology Officer Christian Lau said the soccer fan and casino customer bases “align very well.”

Tribes with sports partnerships may use a team’s logos and marks around the casino and also offer specialty items, like unique apparel, to connect with a sports fan at the casino. In addition, a tribe might offer game tickets as a prize for a contest while the pro sports team might offer a few nights or a meal at the partner casino resort as part of a promotion.

Partnerships take work

The most successful partnerships require a commitment from both the casino and the pro sports team.

“You gotta have a team of people who can execute this,” Arceo said. “When I talk to partners and ask what the No. 1 reason for failure is, the answer is always that there is not enough commitment from the partner, and then they want to blame the team.”

Erica Kosemund, senior director gaming brand & partnerships for Oklahoma’s Choctaw Nation, said a successful partnership isn’t just about being tied to a well-known and trusted brand like a pro sports team, it’s about hard work.

“I think being a good partner cannot be undersold,” she said. “Being a good partner will payoff tenfold.” She said such partnerships must be “multidimensional,” and that “there is a theme night for everything at the ballpark. We’ve been telling [our partners] they should have Indigenous Peoples Night, and once we tell them about the history and culture, they are excited and want to do it.”

Part of such an experience can be storytelling and sharing a tribe’s history with fans at the game, through clothes, music, or food. The Choctaw Nation has nearly three dozen pro sports partnerships, including with nearby Dallas’ baseball, basketball, and hockey teams, as well as the 2026 Dallas World Cup venture.

July 31, 2020