Zona de Azar USA – USA: Leagues Seek to Regulate Advertising Amidst Growing Sports Betting Industry

USA.- May 2nd 2023 www.zonadeazar.com The NFL suspended five players last Friday — three indefinitely — for violating the league’s gambling policy.

Two days earlier, the league joined a coalition of professional sports organizations committed to a responsible approach toward sports betting advertising.

The separate announcements highlight the conundrum facing the NFL and all professional sports leagues that have latched on to the expansion of legal sports betting across the U.S. to 33 states and Washington, D.C.

The millions in advertising dollars and partnerships with sports betting operators are too lucrative to ignore.

Customers stand in Caesars Palace Race and Sports Book on Thursday,Feb. 9, 2023. (Jeff Scheid/The Nevada Independent)

But at the same time, just one scandal involving a player betting on their own games would flush away any credibility the leagues and operators have sought hard to build.

Five players in the past four years have been banned by the NFL for betting on league games. Two Detroit Lions players were suspended for six games last week for gambling violations that did not include betting on NFL games.

In a statement, the NFL said a “league review uncovered no evidence indicating any inside information was used or that any game was compromised in any way.”

The league said it was part of the newly formed Coalition for Responsible Sports Betting Advertising, which wants to take steps to ensure an accountable approach to the sports betting marketing efforts that dominate the airwaves during games.

In addition to the NFL, the coalition includes Major League Baseball, the NBA, the NHL, the WNBA, Major League Soccer and NASCAR, as well as sports broadcasting networks NBCUniversal and FOX.

The coalition was formed to help the sports leagues balance the millions of dollars sports betting operators spend on advertising their product — customer acquisition is the term used by the betting companies — with the integrity of the games.

Edited by: @MaiaDigital www.zonadeazar.com