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SPORTS Friday 8 November 2019
SPORTS BEJING

Continued from Page 17 to dent. That’s not entirely
attributable to sports bet-
And that might be the big- ting, but if you had a $10
gest change in a season parlay riding on the Cow-
where the NFL has not only boys and the over on the
embraced its former nem- Monday night black cat
esis — sports betting — but game, you watched until
joined in promoting the the end of a badly played
fact its games are more game to celebrate what
fun to watch when there’s would have been a mean-
a point spread involved. ingless fumble recovery for
“Not everybody bets but a touchdown with seconds
everybody is interested in left that caused the over to
whether or not their team hit.
is a favorite or a dog and Yes, the NFL still has issues,
by how much,” former and plenty of them. The
longtime NFL broadcaster league always has, but the
Brent Musburger said. “It’s popularity of the game is so A cat runs on the field during the second quarter of an NFL football game between the New York
helped fuel the league strong that the NFL not only Giants and the Dallas Cowboys, Monday, Nov. 4, 2019, in East Rutherford, N.J.
and it’s only getting bigger continues to survive but Associated Press
and bigger now.” thrive. sions remain a problem hidden from prying cam- problem as it is a solution,
That can be seen in Las Protests during the national that will never really go eras. That the game has and flags are thrown so of-
Vegas, where the betting anthem are, for the most away, though the pop-up become almost unwatch- ten that players automati-
handle keeps going up de- part, gone, even while Co- medical tents now on the able at times doesn’t seem cally turn to look for the
spite sports betting spread- lin Kaepernick continues sidelines ensure that the im- to matter. Instant replay penalty whenever there is
ing to a dozen other states. to look for a job. Concus- mediate effects will remain has become as much of a a long play.q
It certainly can be seen in
New Jersey, where fans
sitting in the Meadow-
lands for the Monday night
game were free to use
their phones to bet on ei-
ther the Giants or Cowboys
— though not on the black
cat scoring again.
And it will likely be seen in
the television dollars that
are the backbone of ev-
erything the NFL does. Dal-
las Cowboys owner Jerry
Jones predicted on the
eve of the season that le-
gal sports betting will help
the league increase its lu-
crative television contracts
by 50% when they are up
for renegotiation in 2022.
“Betting and wagering
has been an integral part
of the NFL for a long time
through individuals, in vari-
ous forms, making their
wagers, my town against
your town,” Jones told Ya-
hoo Finance. “But it’s al-
ways to the benefit of the
viewership. The viewership
is where our numbers will
increase. People will stay
longer. That value is how
our sport will benefit from
gaming.”
The betting effect is al-
ready showing with league
TV ratings up 5% last year
and up again this year —
all at a time where TV rat-
ings are on the decline
elsewhere. There’s still an
enormous demand for the
NFL that years of various
controversies have failed