Baseball + Casinos: Now THAT'S a Double Play
Updated: Sep 25
I love a great strategic partnership and this one made me smile.
Circa has become the Athletics’ first founding partner ahead of the team’s move to Las Vegas in 2028. The deal makes Circa the A’s official resort and Circa Sports the team’s official sportsbook, with Circa holding 54 tickets to every home game, including a 22-seat premium space directly connected to the dugout.
But Derek Stevens isn’t just buying some very good baseball seats.
He’s buying an occasion.
Think about it.
Fly into Las Vegas Friday.
Stay at Circa.
Baseball Saturday.
Dinner. Pool. Sportsbook. Restaurants. Nightlife.
& probably another night at the hotel, to recover before heading home.
One baseball game suddenly becomes an entire Las Vegas weekend.
And here’s what makes this partnership even more interesting:
Circa is Downtown. The A’s new ballpark will be on the Strip.
They don’t have to be next door to each other to create value for each other.
The A’s create the occasion.
Circa helps create the experience around it. And this wasn’t built overnight.
Circa and the A’s already had a relationship dating all the way back to the team’s Sacramento years, including events, player stays and other activations. That initial relationship helped create the foundation for the much larger Las Vegas partnership now taking shape.
That is the beauty of a great strategic partnership.
The best partnerships aren’t always between companies that do the same thing.
Sometimes they’re between organizations with completely different assets, audiences and capabilities that become considerably more valuable when connected.
Sports + Gaming.
Entertainment + Hospitality.
Technology + Operators.
Content + Distribution.
1 + 1 doesn’t always have to equal 2.
With the right partnership, perhaps it equals an entire weekend in Las Vegas. 😉
After 36 years in gaming, I continue to believe some of our industry’s greatest opportunities will come not from asking:
“What else can we sell our customer?”
But:
“Who can we partner with to give our customer a reason to stay longer, experience more—and come back?”
That’s The Art of the Strategic Partnership.
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