Kevin Hart roasts LeBron James in a DraftKings commercial. Kevin Hart roasts LeBron James in a DraftKings commercial. (Awful Announcing on X/Twitter.)
By Andrew Bucholtz on

Back in January, there was a lot of buzz around NBA star LeBron James signing a partnership with DraftKings. That included James specifically talking about “football season”:

Now, that partnership has produced its first TV ad. It features James and comedian/ESPN NBA altcast host Kevin Hart, with James talking about a “NFL offer,” Hart figuring he means to play (as has been discussed ad infinitum before) and roasting his age, and the offer actually being about a NFL bonus bet (bet $5, get $200 in bonus bets) for new customers:

There are some good lines in there from Hart, including “Aren’t you a little too old to be playing football? They want somebody who can run a 40, not somebody that is 40!” and “How are you going to celebrate a win, give everybody butterscotch candy?” And that’s a pretty funny commercial overall. But this is maybe most notable for it being the first TV ad produced under James’ deal with the company, which DraftKings CEO Jason Robins was ecstatic about in January:

As per DraftKings, this is the first of three 30-second spots ahead of football season featuring Hart and James. We’ll see where they go from here. But it’s certainly significant to see that deal with James bearing some advertising fruit.

[Awful Announcing on X/Twitter]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

View all posts by Andrew Bucholtz