Watch the Nevada sports books.
The National Football League’s crown jewel event is taking place in Minneapolis as the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles play for the Lombardi Trophy at the Super Bowl. This has been a tough year for the league with Donald Trump criticizing NFL owners for allowing players to silently protest social conditions during the playing of the national anthem. Followed by reports of slumping TV ratings and dropping attendance at games. There was also the Papa Johns founder’s rant and Jerry Jones opposing Commissioner Roger Goodell’s contract extension. But in terms of metrics, people will find out if the NFL did take a tumble by looking at sports books in Nevada. Will there be less money bet on the big game?
In 2017, the 196 Nevada sports books took in $138.5 million from gamblers which was a record haul. Because of factors beyond their control, the actual game score, the 196 sports books made a profit of just under $11 million. But after a year of declining TV ratings in 2016, a record amount of money was placed on that game. As much as the NFL tries to distance itself from the thought that it should not support gambling on NFL games, there is the wink and nod approach in that the league will say it does not support gambling but it does supply weekly player injury reports and that does sway Nevada sports books thinking on point spreads and over and under betting. The NFL does benefit from legal and illegal sports gambling and that brings up another point. The NFL off season might get very interesting as the Supreme Court of the United States will decide the legality of the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act that governs sports betting in the US. New Jersey and Delaware want full sports books, the NFL doesn’t. That political game is bigger than the Super Bowl.
