After years of shadow operation, sports betting is here to stay, and the NFL’s broadcasts are going to start capitalizing on the industry this fall. The league announced they are allowing betting ads on their game broadcasts for the first time this year.
The league has fought against the slippery slopes in sports betting for years but not anymore. NFL representatives signed licensing deals with FanDuel, DraftKings, and Caesars Entertainment worth around $1 billion over the next five years, per the Wall Street Journal.
Now, the league announced sportsbooks can use six television spots each broadcast to promote sports betting. The aforementioned companies are allowed to broadcast in these windows along with WynnBET, BetMGM, PointsBet, and Flutter’s Fox Bet property.
“We were focused on how we can include sports betting ads in a thoughtful way with sports betting going national now, with over half the population having access to sports betting,” NFL Chief Strategy Officer Chris Halpin told the Sports Business Journal. “How do we include it in a way to serve those fans and those partners, while also not overwhelming the game broadcasts?”
It’s hard to say whether fans would get turned off from the game by seeing more gambling promotions than say a liquor, beer, or medication ad. All of those commercial topics are synonymous with NFL Sundays, as the league has an official beer sponsor and added an official liquor sponsor for the first time this summer.
Sports betting is now legal in nearly half the country. The NFL went from supporting the losing side in the 2018 Supreme Court case that essentially legalized the vice nationwide, to now opening bidding wars for sports betting companies to show ads in between first downs.
The NFL is the most powerful sports league in America, and it’ll be sooner rather than later before they increase the betting ad limit. Money talks and sports betting is getting louder every passing day.