Sports Betting Alliance Hires Former AGA SVP Maloney As President

The Sports Betting Alliance (SBA) announced early Thursday morning that it hired former American Gaming Association (AGA) Senior Vice President of Strategic Communications Joe Maloney as its president. Maloney steps into a role previously held by Jeremy Kudon, who has been elevated to chairman of the association.

The move comes weeks after DraftKings and FanDuel, founding members of the SBA, exited the AGA as a chasm opened between the trade organization’s land-based casino members and tech-based platforms. Traditionally a land-based casino industry organization, the AGA in recent years has opened its membership to more tech-based companies that have entered the gambling arena.

But with the rise of prediction markets — and DraftKings and FanDuel’s announcements that they would participate — the interests of the AGA and the two biggest sports betting operators diverged. Neither has launched its prediction market yet, but Fanatics, also an SBA member, surrendered its AGA membership last week when it became the first major state-licensed sports betting operator to go live with a prediction market.

Maloney’s move from the AGA to the SBA should act as a bridge between the two organizations when it comes to lobbying together for state-regulated sports betting and online casino. The SBA so far has taken no position on prediction markets, and its mission statement reads that it “believes customers in all 50 states should enjoy the benefits of transparent and legal sports betting and online casino gaming with consumer protections and responsible gaming tools that do not exist on the unregulated market.”

Maloney said he is passionate about sports and legal sports betting, and working with the SBA will allow him to continue to focus on that work.

“The opportunity to join up and link up with the member companies to scale legal options for more Americans across the sports betting and iGaming space is a real opportunity,” Maloney told InGame. “The work in the category of sports betting, specifically, is something I’m passionate about. The opportunity to continue to be a passionate advocate for and evangelize for legal sports betting with guardrails around responsible gaming and integrity” is exciting.

He said such advocacy will push forward “a trend in this country to bring [gambling] out of the shadows and into the light.”

Maloney also worked for Commanders

Maloney will manage the SBA’s “advocacy, industry-wide communications, strategic development, and strategic partnerships,” according to an SBA press release. He brings more than 20 years of public affairs experience, including two years at the AGA, three years with the Washington Commanders, and 10 years as a partner with the public affairs agency the Locust Group. At the AGA, Maloney headed up the development and launch of the organization’s “Play Smart from the Start” responsible gambling platform.

Kudon, a partner at Orrick, Herrington, and Sutcliffe, will step into the newly created chairman position, where he will oversee legislative efforts to legalize sports betting and online casino across the U.S.

Bet365 and BetMGM are also SBA members.