ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Advertisements for sports activities betting proceed to flood the airwaves, however the NFL stated Tuesday that viewers will see solely three such adverts in the course of the Super Bowl broadcast subsequent month.

David Highhill, the NFL’s common supervisor for sports activities betting, instructed reporters there can be one sports activities betting advert proper earlier than kickoff and two others in the course of the sport.

The league has set limits on in-game sports activities betting promoting. But sportsbooks have solely purchased three such adverts for broadcast proper earlier than and in the course of the Super Bowl broadcast, fewer than the utmost allowed, NFL spokesperson Alex Riethmiller stated.

“We’ve put some policies in place to limit the amount of advertising for sports betting that happens in our live games,” Highhill stated. “It’s roughly one ad per quarter. All told, less than 5% of all in-game ads are sports betting ads.”

League officers and the chief of an issue playing remedy group spoke throughout a web based discussion board concerning the NFL’s first Super Bowl in Las Vegas, the nation’s playing capital. The Kansas City Chiefs will attempt to defend their title towards the San Francisco 49ers on Feb. 11.

The league was certainly one of {many professional} sports activities leagues that fought the legalization of sports betting, largely on grounds that it might undermine followers’ notion of the integrity of the video games. Now that sports activities betting has been authorized for six years, it’s the league’s high precedence to take care of that public confidence, stated Jeff Miller, the NFL’s govt vp of communications, public affairs and coverage.

Part of that effort consists of “being mindful of the tenor, volume and saturation of sports betting advertising and the degree with which we’re integrating that into the live game,” Highhill stated.

He stated the league has been surveying followers since 2019 on their attitudes towards and participation in authorized sports activities betting. While he didn’t present statistics, he stated the NFL has seen a rise in those that say they like and take part in sports activities betting, and a lower in those that don’t.

The subject of sports activities betting promoting has been contentious for years. Almost as quickly as New Jersey received a U.S. Supreme Court case in 2018 clearing the best way for all 50 states to supply authorized sports activities betting (38 presently do, together with Washington, D.C.), sportsbooks flooded the airwaves, print and digital retailers with adverts for sports activities betting.

That led to complaints from some clients, together with recovering compulsive gamblers who stated the fixed enticements to guess make it more durable for them to withstand doing so. Lawmakers weighed in as effectively, threatening to impose restrictions on such promoting if sportsbooks couldn’t rein themselves in.

Even the top of the American Gaming Association, Bill Miller, warned at a Dec. 2021 sports activities betting discussion board that the extent of such adverts was turning into “an unsustainable arms race.”

In April 2023, a lot of the nation’s main skilled sports activities leagues, plus the media firms Fox and NBCUniversal, created an alliance to voluntarily make sure that sports activities betting promoting is finished responsibly and doesn’t goal minors.

Highhill stated the NFL tends to get blamed for sports activities betting adverts which might be past its attain.

“There’s times when we’re held accountable for ads that are not running in our games, that are running on other sports programming or sports radio throughout the week,” he stated. “Unfortunately, we can’t control all ads everywhere.”

Also throughout Tuesday’s press convention, Jeff Miller highlighted integrity measures the league has instituted, together with coaching greater than 17,000 league personnel on what’s and isn’t permitted relating to playing; partnerships with third-party information and monitoring firms, and disciplinary measures for these discovered to have violated league guidelines regarding playing.

He stated Las Vegas has confirmed itself to be a reliable metropolis in its dealings with the league, together with the relocation of the Raiders to Las Vegas, and the current NFL draft that was held there.

Keith Whyte, govt director of the National Council on Problem Gambling, stated a $6.2 million donation from the NFL in 2021 to assist develop playing remedy packages has helped drive “hundreds of thousands” of individuals with playing issues or issues to the group’s web site or to the 1-800-GAMBLER assist line.

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