American basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal has become the latest sports personality to join Australian operator PointsBet as a Brand Ambassador.
The agreement will see O’Neal, who played for six National Basketball Association (NBA) teams and won four championships throughout his 19 year career, appear in PointsBet’s Australian marketing campaigns across television, social media, digital and mobile platforms.
PointsBet’s Chief Marketing Officer and co-founder, Andrew Fahey, said: “Shaq is an iconic figure in the worlds of sports and entertainment and was our clear number one pick to represent the PointsBet brand in Australia.
“US sports, particularly professional basketball, continue to be the fastest-growing betting sport in Australia, and we are very excited to align with such a transcendent athlete.”
Since retiring following the 2010/11 NBA season, O’Neal has remained a popular and prominent figure in basketball and the wider sporting world in general.
The former player, who also won a Gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, currently appears on TNT’s Inside the NBA programme as a sports analyst, and manages an esports team in the NBA 2K League.
The rise of responsible sports betting is really exciting, and I am so excited to join forces with PointsBet, the best-in-class partner in Australia when it comes to online sportsbooks,” said O’Neal.
PointsBet is becoming an increasingly major player in the American sports betting and sponsorship sectors, having secured an agreement with the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Detroit Red Wings earlier this month, ahead of the firm’s launch in the team’s state of Michigan.