Legal sports betting is big business for the league, as the Super Bowl will be held in Las Vegas, once the NFL's baggage. Legalized sports betting is big business for the league.See post for insights into how the legalization of sports betting is reshaping the landscape of professional sports and driving significant revenue streams for leagues like the NFL.
In the early 2000s, when he was a fledgling mayor of Las Vegas, Oscar Goodman sought a meeting with NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue. At the time, the professional sports league treated the city as a third rail. Las Vegas meant gambling, and gambling, be it perceived or real, threatened fans' faith in the integrity of the game. Tagliabue met with Goodman, who made it clear that Goodman's vision would never be realized.
'We were poison,' said Caroline Goodman, who succeeded her husband as mayor of Las Vegas in 2011. We were poison. There was no room for anything there. The doors were closed, locked, and sealed."
Las Vegas would find out just how adamant the NFL was about Las Vegas: In 2003, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority tried to buy commercial airtime for the Super Bowl. The league refused and barricaded itself with gambling. NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy explained at the time, "The NFL has a long-standing policy that prohibits us from accepting any message that mentions sports betting."
But in the five years since the federal government banned sports betting and states widely legalized it, the NFL has changed with America at a dizzying pace. Gambling has driven the NFL's popularity since its early days, but the league has always rejected an authorized relationship. But the NFL now wraps its arms around sports betting and holds dollars in besterecensies.com. The league has three official sports betting partners. The sportsbook operates next to the stadium or, in the case of the Washington Commanders, inside the stadium. This year's Super Bowl will be held in a city that the league once did not acknowledge its presence during Super Bowl commercials.
In 2022, Caroline Goodman watched the NFL draft with her husband. They saw Goodell standing on a stage adjacent to the Strip; the NFL had already decided on Las Vegas for Super Bowl LVIII, which starting in 2020 will be held at Allegiant Stadium, home of the Raiders. The walls between the league and the city, between the NFL and gambling, had been broken down.
"When we went to the draft and I saw him standing on the podium, I said, 'Oh my God. ' Caroline Goodman said, 'Oh my God. We're here. We've got it."
Raiders fans cheer at the NFL Draft in Las Vegas in 2022. (John Locher/AP)
While the league reaps the treasure of revenue from its partnerships with gambling companies, it also faces the pitfalls it once feared, including potential addiction, exploitation of fans, and a decline in trust in the outcome of games. Today, NFL players are strictly forbidden from betting on the NFL or gambling of any kind on team facilities, including team buses and airplanes, or while on team business. If a team stays overnight on a road trip, players are not allowed to visit casinos in that city.
The NFL has suspended 10 players for violating league rules since 2021, but openly admits that the lure of the business opportunity outweighs the risk of compromising the integrity of the game.
One of the reasons we oppose the legalization of sports betting is the risk of compromising the integrity of the game," Commissioner Roger Goodell said in an interview with NBC before the opening game of the 2023 season. 'And that will always be our top priority. Now that the Supreme Court has overturned it, we must enter that space."
The NFL has entered this territory more tentatively than any other sports league. Ted Leonsis, owner of the Washington Wizards and Capitals, once said that gambling "sort of saved the sport in the short term" after the Coronavirus pandemic transformed the business environment. These days, many MLB, NHL, and NBA broadcasts feel like hours-long gambling advertisements.
The NFL's huge television rights deal exempts the league's owners from the regional sports network crisis faced by other leagues and allows them to remain independent of sports gambling. The league has made game broadcasts geared toward non-gamblers, understanding that bettors will look for alternative content and not alienate fans. Some segments explicitly focus on point spreads and prop bets before the game, but they discourage broadcast partners from openly discussing betting lines during the game. The league allows networks to sell up to six commercials per match to sports betting companies.
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Chris Grove, partner emeritus at gambling consulting firm Eilers & Krejcik, said, "The NFL is addressing these topics at a more measured pace. "The NFL has taken the position: 'We are the center of gravity at the intersection of professional sports. We are the jewel in the crown. Let's wait for the rest of the market to settle down. That way we know where the value is and where it is not. In fact, doing so will give us more leverage." The NFL has no doubt moved at its own pace and waited for other situations to settle down.
Still, sports wagering has transformed the NFL's sponsorship revenue. In 2018, the first year the league allowed teams to sign marketing agreements with gambling companies, there was $35 million in revenue from gambling-related sponsors, from tribal casinos to fantasy football, according to data compiled by the research firm SponsorUnited. Bob Lynch, CEO of SponsorUnited, said, "The NFL currently earns $132 million annually from gambling-related sponsors.
Gambling once accounted for 2.3% of the NFL's sponsorship revenue; now it is nearly three times that amount. These figures do not take into account the intangible benefits, such as increased interest and customer data, that sports betting companies can share with the league.
"It's not just the actual money coming in, it's a lot of value extracted. Sports betting is a unicorn-like category that could be sustainable for quite some time.
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NFL fans can't watch a game without at least being bombarded with gambling ads: from 2018 to 2021, Americans over the age of 18 had a 30% increased risk of gambling addiction, said Keith White, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling.
The NFL's legalization of sports betting has led to an explosion of sports betting advertising, not only among adults for whom sports betting is legal, but also among many adults for whom sports betting is not. And it's reaching a lot of children and adolescents as well, and the NFL is clearly playing a part in that."
Since sports betting was legalized, the NFL has become the National Council on Problem Gambling's largest donor; the NFL has donated $6.2 million over three years, while other leagues donate roughly $50,000 a year, Hoyt said; the NBA is at $6,000; and the NBA is at $3,000. The NFL "recognized that it needed to balance both sides of the equation-the costs and benefits of supporting expanded gambling," Whitey said.
When the NFL was still openly opposed to gambling, Goodell repeatedly stated that the league's primary objection was that gambling could affect the integrity of the game. If a player drops a few passes, he once claimed, fans might suspect he was shaving points.
Calvin Ridley, now with the Jacksonville Jaguars, received his first major gambling-related suspension since sports betting was widely legalized. (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
Never mind that the problem could just as easily have existed with illegal gambling, or that the league had been facing it for decades: in 1963, the NFL suspended Detroit Lions defensive tackle Alex Karras and Green Bay Packers running back Paul Hornung were suspended for betting on NFL games and associating with gamblers and people described by Detroit police as "known hoodlums." In the same episode, the league fined five Lions $2,000 each for betting on the NFL championship game. (They picked the Packers over the Giants and won $50 apiece, for a net profit or loss of about $1,950.)
The last surviving player fined in the case was Hall of Fame linebacker Joe Schmidt. He is 91 and lives in a nursing home in Florida. His conversation is still brilliant, but his memory has deteriorated with age and a career of hard hitting. He does not recall the details of his punishment, but he was able to mention the problem the NFL still has: how to crack down on sports gambling by players.
It's part of the entertainment, part of people's enjoyment," he said. 'I think what they're worried about is ballplayers throwing games and things like that. I don't know how in the world that can happen, and if it does, how to stop it.
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