If Legal Sports Gambling Kicks Off Nationwide, the NFL Will Be Ready

The NFL's Eric Grubman ran an informational session on gambling at the owners meetings.

Some of the more than 400 proposition bets for Super Bowl LI between the Philadelphia Eagles and the New England Patriots are displayed at the Race Sports SuperBook at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino on January 26, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada.  (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Some of the more than 400 proposition bets for Super Bowl LI between the Philadelphia Eagles and the New England Patriots are displayed at the Race Sports SuperBook at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino on January 26, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
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If the Supreme Court rules in favor of legalizing sports betting in New Jersey – which could happen shortly – the NFL is going to be ready.

While no plan is formally in place, NFL executive vice president of business operations Eric Grubman ran an informational session at the owners meetings this week on gambling and what the league is doing to prep for the legalization of Las Vegas-style sports betting across the U.S.

According to Sports Illustrated, the biggest area where the NFL is preparing to integrate gambling is via in-game betting, similar to what goes on in the Premier League in the UK.

Apparently allowing in-game betting on props and other outcomes is appealing to the NFL for a number of reasons. SI writes: “Not only is there great opportunity to turn a profit here, there’s also the reality that this sort of action is tailor-made for a younger generation that is less willing to sit there and just watch a game, with nothing else going on, for three hours.”

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell also weighed in on the topic at a press conference this week.

“I think what we did this week was make sure people understood how the prospects and potential for gambling can change, in part because of the Supreme Court decision, how it’s evolved on its own, beyond that,” he said. “And this isn’t new work, we’ve been focused on this for several years, of how it’s affected the way we operate.”

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