Operator News
US – Sports betting to boost NFL revenues by $2.3bn
By Phil - 6 September 2018
The National Football League’s (NFL) annual revenue could increase by $2.3bn a year due to widely available, legal, regulated sports betting, according to new Nielsen Sports research, commissioned by the American Gaming Association (AGA).
The research analyses the revenue streams that legal sports betting will generate for the NFL: direct revenue from data sales and advertising, and indirect revenue based on increased consumption of the league’s media and purchasing of products.
Released this morning, the research has already yielded a significant amount of national news coverage, including an article by ESPN’s Darren Rovell: “Nielsen projects NFL could make billions annually from gambling market.”
According to Nielsen Sports, greater fan engagement and viewership will boost the NFL’s total annual revenue from media rights, sponsorships, merchandise and ticket sales by 13.4 percent, producing $1.75bn in new indirect revenue.
Widespread legal sports betting could help the NFL generate an additional $573m in direct revenue from betting operators and data providers including $451m in advertising revenue, $92m in sponsorship revenue and $30m in data or project revenue.
The implications of this new research could not be clearer. Legalized, regulated sports betting will create huge new revenue opportunities for sports leagues – and the NFL could be the biggest winner of all.
The American Gaming Association said it would continue to reinforce how much sports leagues stand to gain from increased viewership and promote the value of private partnerships between the leagues and sports betting operators.
