The NFL hated legalized gambling, until it didn’t. Similarly, the NFL hated prediction markets — and now it doesn’t.
Less than two months after NFL executive V.P. of communications, public affairs and policy Jeff Miller expressed concern to Congress about the burgeoning alternative to betting, Miller is warming up to the concept.
“It’s innovative, that marketplace is dynamic,” Miller told Front Office Sports. “We’re not quite sure what regulation is gonna look like.”
Regulation is one key factor that the NFL is considering.
“It isn’t just about anticipating the worst,” Miller said. “It is a fan engagement tool, there’s no question around that, and that’s been good for the league. . . .
“There’s no question that we’re going to be spending a lot of time talking about this in the coming months, and maybe even years. But our principles are going to remain the same.”
Said Miller in December, in written testimony to the House Committee on Agriculture: “We are particularly troubled that several sports-related futures contracts have been launched nationwide, including in jurisdictions where sports betting has not been legalized. These contracts fall outside the purview of state regulatory authorities and the safeguards they impose upon the industry.”
Miller also explained that the amount of money devoted to prediction markets could significantly exceed the amount wagered through sportsbooks, creating “substantially greater risks to contest integrity.”
“In each of these state-regulated markets, regulators and state legislators closely monitor betting activity and, with input from professional sports leagues, can determine which bets and wager levels are acceptable,” Miller said at the time. “Those guardrails do not exist in prediction markets. . . . Congress and the CFTC should prohibit these and other types of objectionable bets among the many consumer and integrity protective measures needed before sports-related events contracts are legalized.”
The league’s position on legalized gambling changed in large part because it became a massive revenue stream — and because team owners are permitted to own up to five percent of any company that operates a sportsbook. If the league (and its owners) see a way to profit from (and/or partially own) companies that generate large amounts of cash from the prediction markets, that which was “bad” will inevitably become “good.”
