Hypocritical NFL Allows Teams to Co-brand Lottery and Scratch Tickets

30/05/2009 15:05
Type Online Report
Theme sportsbook

The National Football League has decided to allow teams to put logos and trademarks on state lottery and scratch tickets, in exchange for a percentage of the revenue generated.

Interestingly, this move comes after the NFL's fierce opposition to the sports betting bill in Delaware -- and is contrary to the NFL's traditionally anti-gambling stance.

The New England Patriots were the first team to take advantage of this new policy, and a representative of the team stated "It's not a casino where you can wager on outcomes of games. It's a scratch ticket that you're playing for an opportunity to win dollars and various prizes."

Instead of using doublespeak, why doesn't our friendly neighborhood team representative (and for that matter, the NFL itself) say what he really means:

The real problem with sports betting is that the NFL can't find a way to profit on it, whether it takes place in Delaware or offshore, and is probably even worried about the possibility of collusion between referees and betting syndicates or the sportsbooks themselves, in order to fix games, as was rumored to have happened in the NBA with the Tim Donaghy case.

But isn't it also true that betting on a sport has the strong tendency to increase interest in the sport? Isn't someone who has money riding on a game more likely to be a serious fan and go to the stadium or even watch the game at home on TV?

The NFL's reasoning, or at least the self-justifying schtick that they present to the public, is about as sad as the government's position on gambling, which is more or less that lottery and scratch tickets are ok because they are run (or at least sanctioned) by the government. Nevermind that they are a rip-off and have a much lower payout percentage than offshore sports betting and casino gambling do.

Offshore betting interferes with a government sponsored monopoly, and THAT is the sole reason that it is painted as evil.

"Q"
Wheretobet.com

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