As sports betting continues to grow, the NFL once again faces a challenge in trying to balance financial interests and the integrity of competition. This new challenge comes as the NFL is allowing team owners to hold minority stakes in major sportsbooks. Specifically, the policy allows owners to hold up to five percent of a major sprots book and does not limit how many books an owner can hold a stake in.[1] This policy has been highly criticized with many commentators expressing disapproval with the NFL allowing something that would have deemed inconceivable in the past.[2]
The NFL’s policy raises several questions about conflicts of interest and the integrity of the league. As one could imagine, when the NFL, and its owners, have the potential to benefit from people losing bets placed on NFL games, it invites well-warranted skepticism as to whether it can be trusted that on-field results are not related the owner’s off-field financial interests. And while NFL owners having financial interest in sports books seems bad enough as it is, to make matters worse, it has yet to be disclosed what owners hold stake in what sportsbooks, how big these ownerships are, or how much money is actually involved.[3] To many, this lack of transparency has made an already suspicious arrangement seem all the more cynical.
Further complicating this issue is the fact that the NFL has struggled with preventing improper instances of gambling within the league. Despite increased monitoring and education, the NFL has seen a significant uptick in gambling violations in recent years. As David Purdum of ESPN points out, the fact that sports betting is growing rapidly has created a system in which money is on the line for practically any given play, raising the opportunities for violations.[4] In an era where the NFL is experiencing an increasing amount of gambling violations, allowing NFL owners to have a financial interest in these sports books seems to be inviting more problems.
While the solution to this potential problem is unclear, what is clear is that if the NFL seeks to continue on with this policy, it will need to make a tremendous effort towards ensuring that integrity is preserved, both in appearance and in reality. This likely means that the league will need to require owners to disclose what books they have ownership interest in and adding constant measures to ensure that games are not being skewed to benefit an owner’s off-field interests.
[1] Mike Florio, NFL owners can own up to five percent of a sportsbook company, NBC Sports (Feb. 8, 2024).
[2] Sean Keeley, Craig Carton: ESPN needs to divest from ESPN Bet immediately, Awful Announcing (Oct. 26, 2025).
[3] Mike Florio, The NFL’s “house” problem goes far beyond the looming ESPN deal, NBC Sports (Oct. 28, 2025).
[4] David Purdum, Inside the NFL’s gambling policy and uptick in violations, ESPN (Jun. 5, 2023).
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