Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images
Ahead of Sunday's game, the NFL Super Bowl LVIII football logo will be projected on the side of Caesars Palace Las Vegas Hotel and Casino.
new york
CNN
—
Twenty-one years ago, the National Football League refused to allow Super Bowl advertising from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau because it didn't want the sport to have even the whiff of gambling. NFL on Sunday The first Super Bowl will be held in Las Vegas, a city built on gambling.
Even in 2003, gambling was as much a part of the NFL as reckless driving, helmets, and shoulder pads. Fans have been betting on soccer since it was a semi-professional sport a century ago, when it received far less attention than horse racing or boxing.
And betting on soccer has increased awareness and indirectly increased income.
Despite moving the big game to Las Vegas and partnering with companies specializing in sports gambling, the NFL still tries to maintain some distance between sports and games. If a player places a bet at one of Nevada's many casinos or bets on a league game, he or she may be fined or suspended, and no such action will be made in June 2023. There was a case.
But as Sin City prepares for its first Super Bowl, the change in the league's relationship with sports gambling could not be more apparent.
“Obviously there's a lot of hypocrisy going on here, but attitudes have changed a lot,” said Victor Matheson, an economics professor at Holy Cross College who teaches a class on the economics of gambling.
Sports betting has existed for decades in parts of Nevada and was illegal elsewhere, but a 2018 Supreme Court ruling gave states the opportunity to legalize it.
“After the Supreme Court decision… there was a pretty rapid change,” Matheson said. “The league did its best.”
The NFL could point to a 2018 court decision to explain its involvement in a sector it once publicly shunned.
The NFL changed its position “because the world has changed” as a result of the Supreme Court's decision, league spokesman Jeff Miller said at a pre-Super Bowl media briefing.
Gambling sites Caesars, FanDuel, and DraftKings are official partners and have agreements with the league that allow them to use the NFL logo in advertising, as does Bud Light and other sponsors. Caesars Entertainment is the official casino sponsor of the NFL.
Miller said the NFL does not receive a portion of the money wagered with these companies. But the NFL and its television rights holders, which pay the NFL more than $13 billion a year to broadcast its games, have benefited from advertising by the legal gaming industry.
The gambling company Media Radar, which tracks and estimates ad spending, estimates TV advertising was worth $508 million last year. That's not far behind the $685 million beer companies spend on TV advertising.
Although not all of that money is spent on advertising during football games, the NFL has by far the largest television audience of any sport or entertainment. This means that broadcasters get the lion's share of advertising dollars.
This direct spending is just part of the way the NFL profits from legalized gambling.
Even fans who have placed small bets on the game are more likely to stay tuned even if the score is lopsided, as they can end up being winners depending on the nature of their bet.
The American Gaming Association (AGA) estimates that 68 million Americans will bet $23 billion on the Super Bowl, or an average of $340 for each bettor. Staking has increased by 44% compared to just one year ago. According to the AGA, about 28 million American adults, or one in nine people, plan to place a bet at a legal sportsbook.
The NFL and other leagues have discovered that increasing wagers on games is the key to gaining viewership in an era of increasing competition between networks and streaming services.
“The NFL knows that getting people involved financially is the key to getting people hooked on the game,” Matheson said.
“In the streaming era, the video entertainment audience has become much more fragmented,” said Andrew Zimbalist, professor emeritus of economics at Smith College and a leading expert on sports economics. “By allowing gambling, we can keep (the audience) engaged.”
Zimbalist said the NFL did not lead the change in mindset. Rather, he points to a 2014 New York Times op-ed in which NBA commissioner Adam Silver called for legalizing sports betting as a transformative moment. This column was published four years before the Supreme Court opened the door to legal sports betting.
Not all states allow betting on sports. It remains illegal in the two largest states, California and Texas. Efforts to legalize sports betting in Texas have failed twice recently. However, it is now legal in 38 states and the District of Columbia. Most of these states allow you to bet from your smartphone.
Beyond the economic risk posed by people suffering from gambling addiction, sports leagues are at risk if fans view games as simply a means of betting rather than something to form an emotional bond with, Zimbalist said. He said he would face it.
“Sports have long been a way to bring people together,” he said. Even fans of opposing teams can discuss sports without it becoming as contentious as other issues that divide society today, such as politics or the war in the Middle East, he said.
“That's one of the greatest values of sports,” he said. “But I'm worried that gambling will undo it.”
CNN's Alicia Wallace contributed to this report.
