Adam Silver expounded on the NBA's position on seeking a royalty from legal sports betting now that it will be widely legalized in the United States.

"One of the issues we had on the table and have been seeking is a so-called integrity fee," said Silver. "And the notion of the integrity fee is that, as we’re now dealing potentially with 50 different jurisdictions, all with differing permutations of sports betting law, it’s going to dramatically increase the enforcement cost for the league office.

"So we think the integrity fee is something we’re entitled to, one, because we have the additional cost. And also something, as I’ve said before, and we’re not hiding from, we also think we are due a royalty and that if the intellectual property that is created by this league — and I know all the leagues support this position, but in the case of the NBA, we’ll spend roughly $7.5 billion dollars creating NBA basketball this season. And to the extent that product is then used for casinos, betting parlors to make money on, we feel, just in the same way a musician that receives a royalty for the music that’s being played, that we should receive some sort of royalty.

"So call it a royalty; call it an integrity fee. We will have additional expenses, and it’s ultimately our intellectual property and we ultimately believe we should be compensated for it."

Silver was then asked whether he expects the NBA to collect that fee after discussing it with the other side.

"Good question. It depends. I think we’ve had better receptions in certain states than others. There are very strong gaming interests, some who we’ve talked directly to in many states that do significant business through their casinos in those states, and, again, their position has been very public.

"Their view is we’re not entitled to that integrity fee. And my response to those gaming organizations is if that’s your view, then we will negotiate with you directly, because I think many of them desire to get official data feeds from the league, they desire to use our trademarks for placing bets. Some of them desire to have official designations from our league and others, so we will have direct commercial negotiations with those casinos, which is, to me, not inconsistent in any way with also seeking that integrity fee."