The end of that Commanders Giants game was just shameful. But when sports betting is promoted on every other commercial and it’s becoming legal in most states what do you expect? There’s simply too much money involved now for it not to be compromised. I can’t complain Bc I still bet. Just feels like you have to be on the right side of the fix most games now.
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There would be zero benefit to the NFL to “fixing” results. They would put at risk the largest and most valuable sports league and sports activity in human history (approx. 20 billion per year). The NFL makes its money via television networks paying them for the right to televise their games. Those television networks make money via beer, car, insurance, snack and other companies paying them to advertise on those broadcasts. The NFL also makes money on ticket and merchandise sales. The business model makes sense, and results in profits for all involved. Putting this at risk would just be monumentally stupid.
The challenge I would make to anyone who believes that the NFL is “fixed for gambling purposes” is, “show me the business model for the NFL to make money by fixing results.” Would NFL owners be placing bets? Do they own significant stakes in sports books?
Look at it another way - from the sports book's point of view. They do NOT have to know results to guarantee profits. The lines are set, not based on who the book thinks is going to win a particular game. The lines are set based on getting equal amounts of money bet on each team. The lines change slightly leading up to kickoff to achieve as close to even money as possible. Why? Because on a given game, the pay off is less than even on a successful bet, meaning that for a $100 bet, a winner will only be paid $180, for example. It guarantees that they make money, and lots of it.
Here's how it works: if you bet on team A, and I bet on team B, they take in $200 ($100 from each of us), and they pay out $180. They make $20 (10% gross profit), regardless of which team wins. If 100,000 people place $100 bets on 16 games over a weekend, the same math applies, as long as even or close to even money is bet- they would take in $10 million, and pay out $90 million to the lucky guessers, making $1 million for nothing more than handling the bets and the money.
There is no incentive for NFL owners and no incentive for sports books to “fix games”. Individual betters might have incentive to fix games, but they would have to have access to players or others involved in the outcome to pull it off. That happened in the NBA a number of years ago when a referee was caught adjusting calls to achieve a result on a given side of a line, but not changing the winner of a game. Despite this, a rampant, widespread plot to “fix NFL results for gambling purposes ” make no sense for all.
Hey!! Defeneder of the Shield!!! - Have you not seen some of the games the past few weeks? It just keeps getting worse. Here is some eveidence of a business model.
https://sportshandle.com/nfls-policy-shuttering-stadium-sportsbooks-game-days/
https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/08/27/report-nfl-expects-to-generate-270-million-from-gambling-deals/
The NFL has gone from hating gambling to loving it, because the NFL has found a way to turn gambling into an extremely viable revenue stream.
With more and more American states legalizing sports wagering, and with the NFL abandoning its past shunning of most things gambling, the league will be making plenty of money from its altered position.
Via the Washington Post, the league expects to generate roughly $270 million in revenue this year from sports betting and gambling deals. NFL executive V.P. and chief strategy and growth officer Christoper Halpin says that, eventually, gambling will become a 10-figure revenue stream. Annually.
“You can definitely see the market growing to $1 billion-plus of league opportunity over this decade,” Halpin told the Post.
That’s great news for football, but it comes with an inherent warning for the current stewards of the game. If some of that revenue isn’t devoted to ensuring the accuracy of calls, protecting inside information, preventing corruption of coaches, players, and officials, and otherwise safeguarding the integrity of the game, the league will be stepping into a bear trap, eventually.
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