Kendall Jenner’s new Super Bowl commercial for Fanatics Sportsbook plays on her reputation of dating NBA players and leaving a Kardashian family curse on the discarded partners. Among those people is Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker, who surely is one of the exes mentioned in Jenner’s “Betting on the Right Guy” commercial.
“Any basketball player who dates me kind of hits a … rough patch,” Jenner says in the ad, showing off a mansion, classic car and private jet. “While the world’s been talking about it, I’ve been betting on it. How did you think I afforded all this? Modeling?”
The catch: Jenner is going to be making some Super Bowl bets, and the commercial ends with her teasing that fans can bet with or against her by downloading Fanatics’ app.
Here’s where our friend Devin Booker comes in.
The marketing campaign put Jenner on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. There, searching for Super Bowl advice, she called Tom Brady to help her make a pick. It was a well-played bit by Jenner, as Brady blabbered about DVOA statistics and yards-per-attempt averages before Jenner revealed she’d be picking the Patriots to beat the Seahawks.
Fanatics posted a replay of the visit with Fallon on its Instagram account, and guess who popped up in the comments?
“I bet a million the Seahawks get that ring before you do @kendalljenner 🤗” Booker’s account posted in the replies.
“@dbook 🙄 how’s the ankle?” she snapped back, referencing Booker’s very real ankle injury that is keeping him out at least Thursday night against the Detroit Pistons.
Then came the zinger from Booker: “@kendalljenner come rub it,” he wrote.
Are they back together? Still friends?
We don’t need to pry that much.
What we do know: Booker, Jenner and Brady all have strong ties to Fanatics owner Michael Rubin.
And so this is likely a genuinely master-planned marketing campaign that’s hitting your TV but also embedding itself well into the social media comment sections.