NFL owners voted Monday to let physical sportsbooks to operate at the league's stadiums beginning in 2023 during the league's annual owner's meetings in Scottsdale, Ariz., according to a report by The Athletic. The new resolution will allow teams to have brick-and-mortar sportsbooks at stadiums in states where sports gambling is currently legalized.
With 33 states currently allowing legal sports gambling, roughly 17 NFL franchises will be permitted to host on-site sportsbooks, the revenue from which they will be able to keep up to a certain threshold -- believed to be up to $20 million -- before the revenue is pooled and shared with the league's other 31 teams.
Because bets will theoretically be placed not just on the home team -- and because there is an equity concern that teams in states that continue to ban sports gambling will be at a disadvantage -- revenue from sportsbooks beyond a certain threshold of revenue will be shared, unlike most forms of non-national revenues (Sponsorships, etc.) that teams have.
Presently, the Washington Commanders are the only team in the NFL that has a physical sportsbook within their stadium. However, the Arizona Cardinals have a sportsbook just outside of their venue, as does MetLife Stadium, which is home to both the New York Giants and New York Jets.
The vote to allow physical sportsbooks at NFL stadiums continues the league's embracing of legalized sports gambling that has followed the Supreme Court lifting bans on sports gambling in most of the country.
