With the NFL’s biggest offseason promotional event starting tomorrow, they have announced an incremental change to their advertising policy. Gaming advertisements are now permitted for NFL events and properties for the next two years, though there are a plethora of strings attached.
The first rule is that the entity being advertised cannot offer a sports book. The casino also has to give 5% of the advertising expenditure to the NFL’s anti-gambling program.
Restrictions exist for the ads themselves. They must be targeted toward adults, they must not contradict the NFL’s position against sports betting, must not show slots or blackjack and they cannot involve any of the NFL team’s logos. There are also rules about where the advertisements may go in a stadium, as they must be high enough so that they’re out of view from the common TV camera angles.
This slow progression toward allowing gambling advertisements follows an arc the NFL has been following for the last 19 years. In 1993, the NFL allowed plugs for track betting to be included in State Lottery ads; in 2009, they made further inclusions for these municipal gaming commercials, namely adding State scratchcard games; in 2010, the NFL began permitting Las Vegas promotions, so long as they didn’t promote gambling.
This latest one, though, is clearly the largest of the advancements, in spite of all of the red tape. Though forbidding casinos with sports books is a major restriction, the fact remains that non-municipal casinos are going to use one of the biggest stages in the US for promoting their brand, just so long as they do so in a way that rubs the NFL the right way.
It seems almost certain that the NFL will continue to move the field goal posts, and we will see which restriction will be the next to be forgone.