I was listening to SBNation radio yesterday morning, and I was confronted with an interesting fact. Gamblers account for only 25% of the NFL’s audience, but they account for 50% of the minutes watched on an NFL season, and they watch, on average, 19 more games a year than the regular fan, which means they are consuming those Thursdays and Monday’s as well as three games on Sundays more often than not.
Some sports, notably the NBA, are working to get some juice from legalized gambling, requesting 1% off the top from sportsbooks. In truth, leagues might make more money off gambling without taking money from books, simply because interest will be so much greater.
If the increased number of eyes on the games translates to better ratings and bigger TV contracts. As people have drifted away from traditional cable, many have worried about a TV bubble for sports TV contracts, but those have all but been vanquished. If anything else, there should be more money to distribute in the lower levels of professional sports, especially where those minor leagues supplant college athletics, such as in baseball.
In the UK, where gambling has been legal for sometime, sponsorships are given to leagues, teams and competitions. With gambling available in the US, it may actually subsidize things like relegation in MLS, if only because gambling sites want more things to gamble on.
Back before sports became professional, and before they became high money businesses, the worry was that sports would be corrupted by gambling. Now, decades later we know that sports have already been corrupted – by money. Gambling will only provide more money to investors, and it’s going to be embraced, as opposed to reviled.
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