Who would have believed it that the 32 billionaire NFL owners recognizing the importance of gambling to their success in making money off of their individual confederacy of players would turn to it, the one thing that would further undermine the integrity of their game.
Yesterday I wrote how the NFL was on the decline based on my own experience. If I knew this I knew these dull old men would also have recognized that their product is losing the interest of more and more people. It has become boring.
I was sure that they knew, as I did from my years of wiretapping gambling operations, that the only thing that keeps most of their fans from being bored is they have a stake in the game. I cannot count the times I heard people making bets say they could not watch an NFL game if they did not have some action on it.
During those days the guys (outside of Nevada) who provided an outlet for the many millions who wanted to place bets on the games so they could enjoy them were called criminals. Now they are called owners.
Back then we all pretended that the newspapers and television shows that set out the odds and picks on the games were not part and parcel of the millions of illegal gamblers. Weekly wagering on the NFL was in the billion dollar range.
One recent article noted: “The AGA reports that Americans made roughly $3.8 billion of illegal bets surrounding the Super Bowl played by the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks. Only $100 million was bet legally on that event.”
It also noted: “a total of $95 billion will be wagered on National Football League and college football games throughout the course of this season. A whopping $93 billion (or 98%) of that figure will be wagered through illegal channels.” My experience tells me that over 80% of those wagers will be on the NFL.
The NFL owners know they have a problem. They professed publicly to be opposed to legalizing gambling on football games; on the other hand they needed the gambling to keep up the interest of fans. They also had a secondary problem: they were producing a product and the illegal gamblers were benefiting mightily from it.
They decided to address the problem. Their first thought was to try to get a cut out of the illegal gambling proceeds. They knew the Mafia and others providing those service were not going to cut them in. Their plan was to pretend some type of gambling was legal while keeping the other types illegal. They hoped law enforcement would crack down on the illegal side while it aided them to make money on the other end.
The owners would tell us their gambling was good and the other was bad. A ready-made way to do this was through fantasy football that was invented in 1962. By the 1990s it involved millions of fans who played the game over the time it took for the NFL 16 games to be played. As fantasy football gained in popularity so did the interest in the NFL.
Each weekend the players would watch the games to see how their picks played. At the end of the season a winner would be announced. It was gambling just as picking the teams was gambling but the amounts wagered were done once and mostly were insignificant.
The owners decided to use that as a vehicle to more riches. They would take it over, jive it up to be a daily event, and make it too into a billion dollar gambling ring. They had to pretend it was not gambling.
Fortunately, because fantasy back in 2006 was considered nothing more than the March Madness type of betting, Congress while recognizing it was gambling decided not to regulate it as it did with other type of internet gambling.
They owners took a risk the authorities might not buy into their argument it was legal so they suggested it was not gambling but a game of skill even though anyone, skillful or not, could play it. The owners with their money and power figured they could handle any political opposition.
The other day Jerry Jones a big investor in the fantasy football gambling and owner of the NFL Team in Dallas said: “From my perspective, anything that follows the rules, that causes and creates more interest and more fan participation, I’m really for. So I’m a supporter and that’s the rules that we’ll test — is put your money where your mouth is.”
He went on to say: “I don’t think DraftKings or [competitor] FanDuel in any way compromise our players on the football field because it’s all fantasy. It has no bearing on the outcome of the game at all.” At the same time it is so benign the NFL limits players winnings to $250 while Major League Baseball and the NBA prohibit players from taking part. Isn’t that strange that those most skillful are not allowed to play this game of skill. Why the limit and prohibition if it has no bearing on the outcome of the game?
Jones is delusional thinking it won’t affect the game. It is easier to fix a fantasy outcome than a game. A dropped pass in a Monday night game; a missed block; a fumble; a referee call; could make the difference between some losing money or making millions. The temptation will be too great for some not to fall.
Matt :
Fair enough . We have other fish that await frying however. Keep Pushing !!!
Afterthought: I’m having fun watching the Jets and Giants. Am I wrong in saying the irritating fantasy football ads have disappeared, at least from the games?
Dan:
I was wathing the same game and noticed the same thing – what has happened to all the fantasy adds – when it became public that the networks including ESPN and the owners of the teams all were investing in the fantasy groups they must have gotten nervous about pushing people into placing bets with them without disclosing they had an interest in the outcome of the bets.
Matt: I think they’ve decided to lay low, at least for a while. The games are actually more enjoyable to watch when you’re not bombarded by all those idiotic commercials from FanDuel and DraftKing.
And riddle me this: Why has this form of gambling so thoroughly hooked white men?
http://dailyfantasysports.codes/wire/new-dfs-market-report-nearly-100-of-participants-male/
Your lack of gambling knowledge is suprising considering your history. Unless that was completely tongue in cheek, you must know that the NFL has absolutely 0 to gain from the outcome of any of those contests, nor does any bookmaker. Their money is made on volume, not by outcome. Bookies aren’t in the gambling business.
Declan:
The money is made at the bottom line. The more players the more money. The NFL has a cut of the bottom line.
My comment was directed at your statement regarding the league/gamblers interest in the OUTCOME of the games. Nothing about volume of players.
This is not the first time you’ve changed your tune in the middle of the song when you’re outed as being wrong. Nice try though!
Declan:
It probably won’t be the last.
You’re both right! The NFL is more popular than ever, and the owners are profiting from a gambling operation. And yes, the professional gamblers will sooner or later bribe key players to have a bad day.
Dan:
The popularity has come from the gambling. I noted to Declan that there’s more money in gambling than in many other areas of entertainment combined. Watch for more and more of the NFL to come up with gambling schemes as long as the owners can get a cut of it. Then these last “two minute miracle” comebacks will start undergoing additional scrutiny. The thing also is that you can still win and win under the point spread – as the BC basketball players did back when. If the owner has a bundle bet on a game there are many ways to fix it to win.
* tendentious … we know better than to leave a typo-d ” n ” at the end of a word with you around.
John:
Got it.
It may not be the NFL that is in decline ; your Dershowitz piece was scurrilous and this tendentiousn nonsense about the NFL does not reassure. I expect better from you ; for reasons obvious. Enough of the dyspeptic raillery ; burn a candle and stop cursing the darkness as JFK self-asserted. ENJOY THE GAME !!! 🙂
John:
I agree that I pushed the envelope a bit with Dershowitz but you have to figure he’s been out calling so many people corrupt and suggesting that Billy Bulger and others should have been indicted and then we see some of the things he is alleged to have done one can find little sympathy for him. As you sew so shall your garments wear.
“Yesterday, I wrote how the NFL was in decline based on my own experience”.
From Variety, September 17, 2015:
The National Football League may have had its share of off-the-field distractions in recent years, but its TV ratings have never been higher.
With an average audience of 19.9 million viewers for games last Thursday, Sunday and Monday, the NFL saw its largest-ever Week 1 tune-in, according to Nielsen. The previous high of 19.6 million came for the 2013 Kickoff Weekend.
Declan:
The NFL survives because of the gamblers. The games can be skipped except for the last five minute. Have you ever wonered why the first 55 minutes are a bore and all the teams seem to come alive at the end of the game. The two minute drives, etc.
Res ipsa loquitor:
Top 10 LIST FOR
Week of Nov. 23, 2015
RANK PROGRAM NETWORK RATING VIEWERS (000)
1 NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL NBC 14.6 25,188
2 NBC NFL TH SPECIAL(S) NBC 13.8 27,751
3 SUNDAY NIGHT NFL PRE-KICK NBC 10.3 17,860
Declan:
A lot of bored people. Or, are the gamblers staying up late trying to get even. Over 60% of American adults gambled last year or over the past twelve months on some activity. Over 80% say that gambling is legitimate and casinos are okay.
Gambling generates more revenue than movies, spectator sports, theme parks, cruise ships and recorded music combined Is there any wonder why the NFL owners have decided to get involved in it.