The commissioner of the US National Football League, Roger Goodell said that the league continues to oppose legal and regulated sports betting in the United States.
This was said at a recent press conference against the background of the NFL voting in favor of the Packers moving to Las Vegas, Nevada. Goodell said that the NFL “still strongly opposes legalized sports gambling.”
“The integrity of our game is number one; we will not compromise on that,” he said.
Goodell called sports betting “a major risk for us”.
“I think we have to make sure that we continue to stay focused on making sure that everyone has full confidence that what you see on the field is not influenced by outside factors,” he stated to the press.
There has been a somewhat softening of the NFL’s official stance against sports betting in recent years, and many felt that allowing the Raiders to move to Las Vegas could summon the start of a new era. Goodell’s comments, however, brought things back to reality.
The league also has rights to request the prohibition of bets on games that are held in Nevada, which requires that it informs the Nevada Gaming Board in writing one month before each game. Goodell, however, would not say if the league would carry out such requests on Raider games.
“We’ll study it further,” he told a journalist, “but I think at this point in time that’s not our position.”