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All marriages have their ups and downs, but the unlikely partnership between the sports betting industry and the National Football League (NFL) seems to be especially turbulent.
On Friday (April 21), the NFL announced the suspension of four players on the Detroit Lions and one on the Washington Commanders for violating league rules prohibiting betting on league games, or on college games while at team facilities.
The announcement came just 23 days before the fifth anniversary of the watershed U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which created a vast legal sports-betting market across the United States.
The 6-3 decision on May 14, 2018, immediately transformed the relationship between the leagues and sports betting advocates from bitter enemies to amiable business partners.
But in the last five years, the NFL has announced four suspensions, including seven players and one assistant coach, raising the potential for a long-feared integrity scandal which could damage not only the leagues but also the sports-betting industry.
Meanwhile, there have been two similar Major League Baseball betting suspensions in the last five years, one in the National Hockey League and none in the National Basketball Association.
“Here we go again,” said John Holden, an assistant business professor at Oklahoma State University, who writes frequently about the sports-betting industry.
“The idea that the richest sports league in the world cannot stop its employees from accessing prohibited materials, even on their own property, says to me it is time for a change,” Holden said.
The Detroit Lions also have fired several employees from various departments in the organization for gambling, according to ESPN.com.
“For decades, the NFL was at the forefront of stopping sports-betting scandals. It needs to make some changes and likely revamp its entire sports-betting education program,” Holden said.
It should be noted that similar events are not uncommon in more mature sports-betting markets such as the UK, where several high-profile soccer players and coaches have been suspended or forced disciplinary action in recent years, for violations of their sport's rules on betting.
Brian McCarthy, the NFL’s vice president of communications, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The NFL’s partners in the sports-betting industry appear to be holding up their end of the bargain, and even may have notified the league of the prohibited wagers leading to the suspensions last Friday.
However, there is one glaring exception.
In 2019, Arizona Cardinals defensive back Josh Shaw walked into a Caesars Entertainment sportsbook in Las Vegas and placed a three-team parlay wager, which included a bet against his own team.
The NFL indefinitely suspended Shaw, who never played in the league again.
Marc Edelman, a law professor at Baruch College in New York City, said the partnership between sports leagues and sportsbooks is working well, but he is not optimistic about its long-term prospects.
“With most state regulators failing to enforce reasonable consumer protection laws, the recent marriage between sports leagues and sportsbooks could become bumpy,” Edelman said. “This is simply not a market well-suited for self-regulation.”
