How about a Pets.com ad?
The United States sports betting market is booming and there is still room for growth. With the boom has come a deluge of advertising for sportsbooks. If you watch sports or sports-related programming, you have undoubtedly had your eyes seared by sports betting commercial after sports betting commercial. Telecasts of sporting events have odds discussed and displayed on the screen. ESPN has shows dedicated to just sports betting. And sports venues have ads for sportsbooks plastered all over the place. The upcoming Super Bowl would seem to be the perfect spot to body slam us with massive sportsbook commercials, but fortunately, the NFL has confirmed that there will only be three ads during the big game on February 11.
NFL GM for sports betting David Highhill said that one of the sports betting commercials will come just before kickoff and two will occur during the game. Reports are that DraftKings, FanDuel, and BetMGM will be the three companies running ads.
FanDuel’s commercial will almost certainly run during the game, as it will feature a second chance for future Hall of Fame tight end Rob Gronkowski to kick a field goal in the “Kick of Destiny” promotion. He missed the kick last year. It would be odd if such hyped promo with a huge football star would be put before the game, though it might depend on how much each company pays.
NFL does have its limits
That there will be just three sports betting commercials was up to the sportsbooks, not the NFL, as the NFL did permit more. That said, the league does have its limits when it comes to commercials (commercials specifically, not all sports betting sponsorships, discussion, tie-ins, and other advertising).
“We’ve put some policies in place to limit the amount of advertising for sports betting that happens in our live games,” Highhill told reporters during an online forum about the first-ever Super Bowl in Las Vegas. “It’s roughly one ad per quarter. All told, less than 5% of all in-game ads are sports betting ads.”
Highhill added that it is important that the NFL be “mindful of the tenor, volume and saturation of sports betting advertising and the degree with which we’re integrating that into the live game.”
Jeff Miller, the league’s Executive Vice President, Communications, Public Affairs and Policy, said that the NFL has taken steps to ensure the integrity of games with the rise in sports betting since the US Supreme Court overturned PASPA in 2018. League and team employees, including players and coaches, have been trained on what is and what is not allowed in terms of gambling. The NFL has also partnered with third-party monitoring companies.