The Edmonton Oilers player has a sports betting marketing deal.
It took four years but an active athlete is now pitching a sports gambling site. The National Hockey League’s Edmonton Oilers Connor McDavid is imploring you to bet. At one time, sports leagues hated the thought of legalized sports gambling in the United States and felt gambling would mess with the integrity of the sports industry. Sports leagues loathed Las Vegas and Nevada because the state had sports gambling. The moralists in the United States sports industry included NBA Commissioner David Stern who in the 1990s was ready to block expansion plans into any city where local governments were entertaining the thought of sports gambling. Stern wanted the NBA exempt from legalized sports betting and lobbied to kill sports gambling in New Jersey. The National Football League fought with New Jersey and Delaware in courtrooms to stop legalized sports gambling. The Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling to overturn 1992 legislation that banned legalized sports gambling in 46 states, US territories and the District of Columbia changed everything.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association, which joined with the NFL in court cases to block the implementation of sports gambling in New Jersey and in Delaware did an about face and was fine with gambling. Of course, the NCAA never had a problem with legalized sports gambling in Nevada and, in fact, Nevada sports books have helped the NCAA in creating additional interest in college football bowl games and the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament. The NCAA once had a ban on placing a basketball tournament in Las Vegas because of some integrity reason which has never been fully explained. Las Vegas can host tournament games. The NCAA can make money off gambling. In fact, it seems the sports industry from owners to retired players and now active players can make money off of sportsbooks.
Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
