Green Bay Packers partner with Oneida Casino

Earlier this week, the NFL’s Green Bay Packers announced that the Oneida Casino would henceforth be the official casino of the Green Bay Packers. It’s a move that would have seemed unthinkable a few years back, but it illustrates the rapidly changing relationship between America’s most popular sports league and gambling industry.
The announcement, which was made with some flair, came on Wednesday and was presented as an, “enhancement of their longtime partnership.” While that statement is true, the casino sponsors a named space in Lambeau Field, it doesn’t really hint at the seismic shift the new relationship represents.
After all, the NFL has long led the fight against regulated sports betting in the United States and only recently warmed to sponsorship deals of any kind with gambling operators. But that was then, and this is now.
The partnership between the Green Bay Packers and the Oneida Casino will mostly involve promotional events and it’s highly unlikely that players like Aaron Rodgers would ever be pictured playing slots at the casino. At the same time, the partnership is a pretty natural fit as the Oneida Casino is just ten minutes away from Lambeau Field.
Craig Benzel, Packers vice president of sales and business development played up the casino’s relationship with the casino in a press release saying, “As two strong Northeastern Wisconsin organizations, the Packers and Oneida Nation have a long history of working together. We look forward to continuing to build upon our partnership by creating new and exciting experiences for fans in the years ahead.”
In short, the relationship between the NFL and casino gaming industry is changing dramatically.