Sports Betting sponsorship continues to grow despite NFL tough stance

The US’s NFL ban on professional footballer gambling has come under scrutiny again following suspension of an Arizona Cardinal’s defensive back.

Lat month Josh Shaw was suspended for at least the rest of the current season and will not be able to apply for reinstatement until 2021 because he placed bets on professional football. The first ban of its type in more than 30 years.

All NFL employees are banned from betting on NFL football to maintain the integrity of the league, according to the NFL. Shaw placed the bets in MGM in Vegas in November but did not tell his coach or fellow football players and signed his own name on the betting slips.

The last player to be suspended by the NFL for gambling was Jon Stark, a rookie quarter back with the Baltimore Ravens. He was suspended in 1996 after an anonymous phone caller tipped off the league which resulted in him never playing an NFL game.

Shaw’s gambling suspension comes as the league has begun to shed many of its longstanding prohibitions against associating with the gambling industry. In recent years, the league and its teams have accepted sponsorships from daily fantasy companies, casinos and state lotteries. While the Oakland Raiders are set to move to Las Vegas next season, the epicentre of gambling. The New York Jets have just entered a sponsorship deal with MGM while Caesars is one of the principal sponsors of the NFL. The New Orleans Saints, Dallas Cowboys, Carolina Panthers, all have taken casino sponsor. Fan Duel, the fantasy sports giant, now has contracts with no fewer than 15 NFL teams for display and advertising rights. This in addition to Fan Duel’s partnership with the NBA and Major League Baseball. The NHL has MGM as their casino sponsor as well.

However, the NFL’s stance about betting among NFL players remains hard-line prohibiting gambling, discussions of gambling or the implications of game developments. This is despite the United States Supreme Court giving states the green light to allow sports wagering in 2017.

Martin Owens, a California attorney specialising in the law of Internet and interactive gaming since 1998 sees gambling as an inevitable part of US sports.

He said: “When the contracts and sponsorships take effect, gambling will become simply part of the pro sports ecosystem. It will work, and it will work honestly. The old shibboleths about corruption and crime will be seen for the overblown farce that they really are. Anti-gambling hysteria will lose its edge, and the people who make their living finding hobgoblins and secret menaces will simply have to settle on another bogeyman. Don’t worry, they’ll find one.”