Show Notes
The pro football season returns, bringing tailgate parties, spicy chili, and gambling addiction.
The NFL is a huge industry, with multiple revenue streams and partners that make it a power player off the field. Today, on The Drill Down, Peter Schweizer and co-host Eric Eggers look at the seamy side of the NFL.
Sports gambling across all sports, sponsored with hundreds of in-game promotions and fast-talking advertisements, is now a $100 billion per year industry. But the NFL commands the strong side of that line, more than a third according to an industry group.
The NFL needs lots of help in Washington, and with state governments as well. So, they hired a lobbyist from a booming firm called Ballard Partners to represent them with various regulatory matters and acquisition deals. The biggest is the deal for Disney’s ESPN to acquire NFL media assets, including the league’s own NFL Network, NFL Fantasy (a digital offering) and NFL Red Zone. The massive deal requires federal regulatory approval.
Schweizer and Eggers talk about the annoying endzone slogans that are back for this season. Teams can pick from “End Racism,” “Choose Love,” “Stop Hate,” or “Inspire Change.” Once again, stenciled into the opposite end zone for all games will be “It Takes All of Us.”
But given the importance of sports betting to the NFL and the disproportionate gambling by Black people, the woke slogans hit a little differently this year. Schweizer believes it’s a “woke camouflage” masking the gambling come-ons that are targeted specifically at Black Americans.
According to Rolling Out, “some experts say sports betting companies target African American audiences, pointing out the disproportionate number of betting ads and establishments in Black neighborhoods, which often promote betting as a path to financial success while downplaying the risks.”
“They use people like Jamie Foxx and Chris Rock in their advertisements,” Schweizer notes. Even leftwing activist and MSNBC host Al Sharpton has gotten a piece of the action.
So, it’s no surprise the NFL hired one of the most Trump-connected lobbying firms to represent it in the corridors of DC. Florida-based Ballard Partners boasts some particularly important alumnae. Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, ran Ballard’s office in Ponte Vedra back in 2011, and Pam Bondi was a registered lobbyist for Ballard between her years as Florida’s top attorney and her current role as the US Attorney General. Bondi, at least in theory, will be the final say on approving the pending merger of NFL Networks with Disney’s ESPN. Schweizer speculates she will have to recuse herself given the obvious history.
NFL football is an obvious ratings bonus for Disney/ESPN, but it’s ironic that the company, focused on family entertainment like theme parks and movies for children, used to be opposed to all efforts to bring gaming to Florida years ago, before the company became a media juggernaut.
If gambling addiction is a particular problem among Black Americans, as the statistics seem to indicate, the NFL and Disney’s push into greater gaming tie-ins would appear to be the last thing needed.
“You can’t create the problem and be part of the solution,” the hosts agreed.
