Tony Romo is one of the highest-paid sports broadcasters of all-time with a massive contract from CBS to call NFL games.
He is seeing a change in the NFL that has him worried and it has to do with gambling.
With an estimated $23.1 billion to be bet on the Super Bowl, there is no doubt that the NFL’s decision to finally play its big game in Las Vegas is having a huge impact on the sports gambling market this year and for many years to come.
Romo is expressing some concern about the NFL’s marriage with gambling.
“I grew up where we never talked about or thought about lines or anything like that in football,” Romo told The Athletic. “The angle that I try to communicate to the audience is how to win this game for this team, or not to lose it in some cases.
“But once you start going into that world, it strikes me as you’ve got to be great at two things. Now you’re affecting people’s lives with what you’re saying in some way. It just makes it feel less pure and less like the stuff that you grew up on.”
Nantz said the information is “already out there” and affecting golf broadcasts, among others.
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“Thankfully, not ours. I cringe,” the veteran announcer said. “But I think the broadcasters that have had to do it so far, they don’t have a say in that. It’s a revenue source for the companies that employ them, and I believe it will be much more widespread with each passing year.”
He added: “We’re not setting lines, and I don’t think anybody’s asking us which way to bet. I think we’d be basically reading what the odds are. The idea that it becomes commonplace in the broadcast? I give it 2 1/2 years. But I’m pulling for the over.”
Here’s how fans on social media responded to Romo’s comments:
The former Dallas Cowboys quarterback will join Jim Nantz in the booth for CBS’ international TV broadcast of Super Bowl LVIII between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium.
There was once a time when pro football avoided any connection with sports betting. Sports betting has been a rapidly growing market in recent years as it continues to be legalized in many states across the country.
In 2024, the Super Bowl is in Las Vegas with two of the league’s best-known teams facing off and although players on that team cannot gamble, the other players in the league can do so but still cannot bet on the NFL as that is prohibited no matter what.
The NFL is at the center of all of it as it has been the most bet-on sport in the country by a significant margin and it will only get bigger.
