The National Football League (NFL) is Likely to Enter the Gambling Business in a Big Way
The NFL is apparently conquering the world of gambling. After the US professional league has already granted its trademark rights to physical slot machines, it now seems to be becoming active in the area of online casinos.
Tuesday July 7, 2024 — As the world’s top-selling sports league, the NFL is known for always finding new revenue opportunities. The potential in the area of TV revenue and ticket revenue has (as of today) been largely exhausted. Therefore, a new business area has been found in which money can be made: namely, gambling.
The NFL is the first US sports league to license its trademark rights to a physical casino game. Now the business area has been expanded even further by the NFL also granting its license to an online casino. This is according to a report by “awfulannouncing.com”.
The advantage of online gambling is that it is even easier to ensure than with a physical slot machine that the provider always wins in the end and makes a decent profit.
There are already physical slot machines that use the NFL’s trademark rights. Now online casinos are apparently following suit.© USA TODAY Network
Court ruling allows entry into gambling
A few years ago, it would have been completely unthinkable for US sports teams to license their logos for slot machines. But the Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling allowing legalized sports betting nationwide opened up a new area of business.
Up until now, there have mainly been collaborations between the NFL or the NFL teams and sports betting providers. For example, anyone who placed a bet on the “Thursday Night Game” at Fanatics Sports Betting was given access to an in-app stream of the game.
Entering the world of gambling now offers another opportunity to make money with the NFL brand.
Online casinos sometimes more lucrative than sports betting
The plan is for the game to charge a small fee to purchase digital coins needed to participate in the online gambling. “It’s big business if you can get people to buy the virtual currency to play the games,” gambling consultant Dustin Gouker is quoted as saying in the report.
“Online casinos are a very big business. But in the United States, it’s limited, much more limited than sports betting, because it’s only allowed in a little more than a handful of states. The big ones are Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and West Virginia. So it’s a very big business, and it surpasses sports betting in those states.”
The NFL has not yet commented on the report.
SOURCE: ranActive