Whether you’re a diehard NFL fan and football is your religion or an agnostic who will only tune into the big game on Sunday just to see the commercials, chances are you’ve seen an advertisement for sports gambling recently.
Since the landmark 2018 Supreme Court decision striking down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), which prohibited sports gambling in most states, dozens of states have legalized the vice.
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Although the NFL, the country’s most popular sports entertainment league, vehemently opposed the Court’s decision, it has perhaps benefitted the most financially from the changing landscape.
American adults bet an estimated $35 billion with legal sportsbooks on the NFL in 2024, according to the American Gaming Association. That is a nearly 33% increase from the $26.7 billion it estimated was spent in 2023.
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That number will continue to grow as more states come online for sports betting.
The NFL has a tenuous relationship with sports gambling
Sports gambling does more than just draw interest to the game of football. The NFL also financially benefits directly from the money being wagered through sponsorship deals and ad buys.
While the league has installed certain guardrails like compulsory educational programs for beginners and rules against betting on NFL events by players, the NFL has fully embraced gambling,
In 2021, the league signed deals with Caesars Entertainment (CZR) , DraftKings (DKNG) and Fanduel that would reportedly pay the NFL $1 billion annually. In return, the three sports gambling companies are granted exclusive use of the NFL shield and team insignias on their platforms.
The NFL has branded games with the companies.
The sportsbooks are also putting money in the pockets of the NFL’s partners.
DraftKings also signed a deal with Amazon to sponsor and provide the exclusive pregame odds for Thursday Night Football in 2022.
While most of the top-10 sports betting companies spent nine figures on advertising last year, according to Scaleo.io, just DraftKings and FanDuel potentially spent over $1 billion on advertising combined.
Related: How much Americans are spending on the Super Bowl in 2025
But while the NFL embraces sports gambling’s benefits on the one hand, it keeps the industry at arm’s length on the other.
NFL rules on sports betting advertising complicate association
Due to the addictive nature of sports betting and the potential for children who watch the games to be influenced by them, the NFL has strict rules on advertising during its games.
“We’ve put some policies in place to limit the amount of advertising for sports betting that happens in our live games,” David Highhill, the NFL’s general manager for sports betting, told the Associated Press. “It’s roughly one ad per quarter. All told, less than 5% of all in-game ads are sports betting ads.”
However, there will be even fewer sports gambling ads than allotted during the Super Bowl.
The league will only broadcast three of them Sunday night – one right before kickoff and two other during the game, the AP reported.
So, while the league broadcasts advertising for sports gambling to the big game’s more than 100 million expected domestic viewers, it will also remind more than 17,000 league personnel of the rules and bylaws surrounding an increasingly popular, potentially dangerous pastime.
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