U.S sports leagues smell money in possible sports betting ban overturn

America’s major sports leagues have fought against the liberalisation of sports betting in the United States for years, mainly litigating against the state of New Jersey’s attempt to set aside the federal and restrictive Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), but it appears that even they now recognise that the much-anticipated US Supreme Court appeal may go against them.

That implies a wider and very lucrative market – some estimates say $150 billion a year – and they appear to want some of it.

Various sporting bodies have been lobbying at state level for any sports betting legalisation laws to include a cut for themselves, which they justify as an “integrity fee” to protect the sports they represent, but technically illegal sports betting has been going on outside PASPA on a massive scale for decades, and there have been only isolated cases where the full integrity of a sport has been seriously challenged by dishonest or criminal conduct.

This week the major leagues made a move that suggests they are perhaps resigned to losing the Supreme Court case;  Major League Baseball, the NBA, the NFL, and the NHL issued a joint statement referencing the US Supreme Court case and PASPA and asserting:

“Representatives of the MLBPA, NBPA, NFLPA and NHLPA have been working together on the legal, commercial, practical and human consequences of allowing sports betting to become mainstream. The time has come to address not just who profits from sports gambling, but also the costs.

“Our unions have been discussing the potential impact of legalized gambling on players’ privacy and publicity rights, the integrity of our games and the volatility of our businesses. Betting on sports may become widely legal, but we cannot allow those who have lobbied the hardest for sports gambling to be the only ones controlling how it would be ushered into our businesses. The athletes must also have a seat at the table to ensure that players’ rights and the integrity of our games are protected.”

Short of withdrawing their services and harming themselves, there appears to be little the leagues can do if PASPA is overturned and individual states pass laws legitimising sports betting as a result.

The sports bodies are of course free to lobby their position with lawmakers and others, as they have in the past, but will they be able to wield sufficient clout to dictate or influence the new industry developments in their favour as they belatedly move to “get a seat at the table”?

The “integrity fee” that some leagues have been asking for suggests that the smell of money is swirling around, and the leagues may believe they are entitled to a substantial amount of it.

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