The Wednesday Line: AGA On Super Bowl; NFL's 'Embrace' Of Sports Betting
Here’s today’s quick rundown in the world of U.S. gambling. Check out The Tuesday Line if you are catching up on the news.
AGA’s Super Bowl betting survey
The American Gaming Association released its annual survey about betting on the Super Bowl. The topline numbers: 68 million Americans will bet $23 billion on the game. The survey casts a wide net beyond the legal market, as it would also capture Super Bowl squares contests, casual betting between friends and betting offshore, among other things. The amount wagered at legal sportsbooks will be somewhere between $1 and $2 billion by most estimates.
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Mainstream media keeps legitimizing offshore
Offshore sportsbooks always get lots of press during the Super Bowl, because they offer betting props that legal and regulated sportsbooks in the United States cannot. And they are very good at PR. The latest I saw is Axios giving some run to BetUS, saying simply that it is based in Costa Rica rather than a sportsbook that serves Americans illegally. At least they didn’t link to the sportsbook. There is no comp I can think of in the media of citing illegally operating businesses like this. It’s a wild dynamic that continues to make me sad as someone who spent a long time in journalism. At the risk of being the old man shouting at a cloud, journalism used to be better.
The NFL and ‘embracing’ betting
Amen to this piece by Mike Florio over at NBC Sports calling out NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. From Florio (in italics): “We did not make the decision,” Goodell said regarding the legalization of sports wagering. “Ultimately, the decision was a decision by the Supreme Court, when they legalized sports betting. We have to adapt. We have to embrace it.” The first is true; they did indeed have to adapt to a world in which legal sports wagering has mushroomed. However, they did not have to “embrace” it. The NFL was one of the litigants trying to stop legal sports betting. The league changed its stance on sports betting because if it didn’t, it wouldn’t be able to make money from it. Goodell isn’t going to say that in a presser, but the NFL certainly had a choice.
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