NFL is now betting big on once-taboo gambling industry
DENVER — It wasn’t that long ago that the NFL nixed Tony Romo’s fantasy football convention at a Nevada casino because of the league’s strict policy against having anything to do with sports betting.
Now, the NFL is betting big on the once taboo industry, loosening its gambling policies just as the finishing touches were being made at Allegiant Stadium, the Raiders’ spiffy new home within earshot of the neon-soaked Las Vegas Strip.
When the league voted in May to allow teams to sign sponsorship deals with gambling entities, the first team to place its bets was the Denver Broncos.
The Broncos capitalized on a confluence of events: Colorado’s new sports gambling law that was approved by voters and the league’s lifting of its ban on sportsbook advertising.
During a pandemic when new sponsorship opportunities were nearly non-existent, the Broncos signed a trio of gambling sponsors: one with Fanduel Group that includes stadium signage; another with BETMGM that features a sports betting lounge at Empower Field and a
a sports betting app; and one with Betfred USA Sports, which launched a full sportsbook at Saratoga Casino Black Hawk, about 45 minutes away in the mountains.
(Fans won’t actually be able to place wagers at the stadium betting lounges like they would at a sportsbook but will have to place their bets through an app, and the stadium signage won’t be showing up on broad
casts.)
“There’s sports betting, there’s daily fantasy, there’s casinos, so there’s a lot of different aspects to these businesses,” said Mac Freeman, the Broncos’ chief commercial officer.
“I think what you’ll find with us carving those first tracks through the field you’ll see other teams follow pretty quickly as states come on” board with sports gambling, Freeman said.
Freeman said the trio of deals with three very different gambling out
fits is a result of the Broncos “bringing order to what was sort of a chaotic environment.”
“Because in the clutter just taking any deal you can get, probably no one actually gets true value out of it. So, I think we got a very favorable response from all of the partners and they were thrilled that we were going to limit these and then work hard to craft space for all of them so we could deliver a real value for them,” Freeman said.
No, the new gambling
partnerships won’t make up for revenue lost during the coronavirus crisis, which has forced many teams, including Denver’s, to open the season without fans but with crowd noise pumped in instead.
“It’s great that we were able to get these deals done. It’s material revenue for the organization,” Freeman said. “The reality is I think you know the other revenue (dips) we’re going to see this year will dwarf what probably we were able to do in this category.”