Fansided

Why the NFL (and all sports leagues) are right to want a cut of sports betting profits

By Peter Bukowski

ARLINGTON, TX - DECEMBER 24: Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott (21) warms up before the game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Seattle Seahawks on December 24, 2017 at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Seattle defeats Dallas 21-12. (Photo by Matthew Pearce/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
ARLINGTON, TX - DECEMBER 24: Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott (21) warms up before the game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Seattle Seahawks on December 24, 2017 at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Seattle defeats Dallas 21-12. (Photo by Matthew Pearce/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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The Supreme Court ruling Monday opens the door for states to legalize sports betting and all the major sports want in on crafting the laws as well as part of the profits. They should absolutely get some of that money.

You know that NFL commercial during every game where Ian Eagle reads off the ways you can’t use the game without the “express-written consent of the National Football League?” That’s all you need to know about why sports leagues, including the NFL, want to be a part of the process when it comes to crafting legislation around sports betting.

Don’t listen to any of the nonsense coming from Park Avenue about the integrity of the game. The league doesn’t care about that. What they care about is that people can’t legally profit off their games without the league also putting cash in its pockets.

They haven’t been as transparent about it as the NBA and MLB has, with Adam Silver coming out and asking for a one percent cut, but the NFL will quickly follow suit.

As soon as the NFL started hosting its own fantasy football game, this was fait accompli. The NFL benefits from people’s interest in their fantasy teams and even though technically having money exchange hands was illegal, the league knew what was going on and thought it was better to encourage increased energy and interest in the league through illegal gambling.

They want you betting on their games just like they want you playing fantasy football. By next season, I’d be willing to bet NFL.com will, like Yahoo already does, have a functionality where they will allow fantasy football players to put their money into their pot and dole it out at the end of the season. It was a bridge the NFL was unable to cross before given the legal status of gambling itself.

Roger Goodell and his co-workers at NFL HQ are smart enough to see the money that can be made here and they’ll make every effort to make sure the league is at the forefront of the innovations with live betting, daily fantasy, futures, and much more.

Goodell has to put out a statement insisting the league wants integrity because they truly do, but also because they can’t say the real thing which, “Hell yes, we want those dollars.”

And why should sports books and online casinos be able to legally benefit from the NFL product? The league’s clearly view this—in my opinion, fairly—like taking a rake in an underground card room. The house gets a fee simply for putting on the game and assuming the risk.

Sports leagues host the action. The players are the cards or the dice or whatever game of chance you fancy. The outcomes are no financially different to a gambler than what happens on the river when the last card is dealt.

The leagues carry the risk. It’s their business after all. Legally, the NFL doesn’t own the rights to gamble on the game, unlike the disclaimer we watch every Sunday. They own the footage and the live rights, but even with this Supreme Court ruling, the right to bet on the NFL remains very much in the hands of gamblers assuming their states allow it.

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Rather than fight that, the NFL has decided to join them. They just want to make sure companies aren’t making millions of their game. When it was just Las Vegas and Reno and Atlantic City, that was one thing, but opening up the game to the country and potentially the world is something the leagues simply can’t abide.

And they shouldn’t. At the very least they’ll likely move all in to give fans the opportunity to gamble with the league itself.

“Get the latest over/unders at NFL.com” etc. But what they’re asking for is essentially a license fee, not much different from what they require for their content. If you’re going to make money off the league legally, you owe the league a cut.

That’s how pro sports has worked from time immemorial. There’s no reason sports betting should be any different.