from Scott Soshnick and Christopher Palmeri of Bloomberg,

The Josh Harris-controlled Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils signed a multiyear marketing agreement with partypoker, becoming the first major U.S.-based professional sports teams to align themselves with online gambling.

The agreement with the unit of Gibraltar-based Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment Plc, the teams and Prudential Center, home to the Devils, comes about a year after New Jersey legalized online gambling, which is expected to be a $7.4 billion business in the U.S. by 2017, according to the research firm H2 Gambling Capital. Nevada and Delaware are the only other states to allow online gambling.

“This is our flag in the ground that we do things differently,” Scott O’Neil, chief executive officer of the 76ers, Devils and Prudential Center, said in a telephone interview. “We’re looking for groundbreaking opportunities with companies willing to take chances.”

continued