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The Super Bowl on Sunday will cap a banner season for the National Football League (NFL) and the U.S. sports-betting industry, but a lawsuit alleging offers of payments to fix games looms as a threat to professional sports leagues and their gambling partners whom they once shunned.
Brian Flores, who was fired on January 10 as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, sued the NFL for racial discrimination on February 1.
Among other things, Flores accused Dolphins owner Stephen Ross of offering him $100,000 for every game the team deliberately lost in 2019 to obtain a higher pick in the 2020 NFL draft of college players.
Hue Jackson, who like Flores is an African American, told ESPN he received similar offers from Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam before being fired as the Browns’ head coach in 2018.
Both owners have vehemently denied the charges made by Flores and Jackson. The NFL has promised to investigate the allegations of game-fixing.
“If it’s proven that Stephen Ross really did offer money to Brian Flores to lose games, then he’s got to go. Ross would have to sell the team,” said Joe Asher, president of sports-betting operations at International Game Technology in Nevada.
Already, there is speculation that the NFL may adopt a lottery to determine which teams get the first picks.
The National Basketball Association (NBA) started a lottery for high draft picks in 1985 to discourage teams from “tanking” games.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver fined Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban $600,000 in February 2018 for telling his players “losing is our best option” after it became clear the Mavericks would not make the playoffs.
Ryan Rodenberg, a professor at Florida State University, said Flores’ lawsuit against the NFL includes two aspects relevant to the sports-betting industry.
“First, Flores’ allegations about payments for intentional losing could fall under the federal Sports Bribery Act or the state law equivalent statute in Florida,” Rodenberg said.
Violating the U.S. Sports Bribery Act of 1964 is a felony punishable by a fine and imprisonment for up to five years.
A comparable statute in Florida, enacted in 2011, is a third-degree felony with punishment that also includes up to five years in prison.
“Second, if the allegations turn out to be true, it will be revealing to learn if certain sportsbooks, such as those partnered with the NFL, got tipped off about the scheme and adjusted their season win totals accordingly,” Rodenberg said.
Jay Kornegay, who manages the SuperBook at the Westgate Casino in Las Vegas, said he is not aware of any sports-betting operators who have been tipped about fixed games related to the draft process.
After hearing about the lawsuit, Kornegay said he looked back at the Miami Dolphins games in 2019 and could not find any suspicious activity.
“That doesn’t mean that the offer wasn’t made but it certainly wasn’t reflected on the field of play,” Kornegay said.
Sportsbook operators are on the lookout for unusual betting patterns every day, according to Kornegay.
“The integrity of the game is our product as well. People will not bet on a game if they think the outcome is pre-determined,” Kornegay said.
Although he did not disclose numbers, Kornegay said it has been a record-year for Las Vegas sportsbooks, and he expects that momentum to continue Sunday for the Super Bowl.
“Even though I don’t think [the Super Bowl] will set a record [for sports betting], it will be close to it,” Kornegay said of the Las Vegas market.
The 2018 Super Bowl between the Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots holds the record with more than $158m wagered in Nevada.
Sportsbooks in Nevada are generating revenue higher that pre-pandemic totals, and those numbers are virtually certain to soar even higher if the state’s indoor mask mandate is lifted as expected before March Madness, the men’s college basketball tournament, begins next month.
Vic Salerno, a legendary Las Vegas bookmaker who is in the Sports Betting Hall of Fame, said he does not expect the lawsuit by Flores to go far because of “the power of the NFL.”
Salerno, who founded US Bookmaking in Las Vegas, said the lawsuit is not on the same level as the Black Sox Scandal of 1919 when players on the Chicago White Sox threw the World Series and almost destroyed Major League Baseball.
But, Salerno added, “I believe there is some truth to these accusations.”
