The NFL is the leading sports betting market for US sportsbooks, and offering another week will only add millions in handle each season.<\/p>\n
Another proposed change is the addition of a seventh playoff team in each conference. As a result, now only the team with the best record in each conference will get to rest up during the NFL\u2019s Wild Card Weekend.<\/p>\n
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The additional playoff team now will likely add more competitive games, from a betting perspective, for the final weekend of the regular season. So, a team that was once guaranteed a bye with the second seed in hand could have used that opportunity to rest starters. Now, if the second seed has a shot at being the top seed, a coach will likely commit to playing his first-string unit the entire game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Players have long balked at adding an extra game to the regular season, citing an increased risk of injury in a sport that exacts a high toll on players\u2019 bodies. They also may object to players under current contracts not seeing their contracts grow proportionally with the extra game added to their workload.<\/p>\n
Why Now?<\/h2>\n
The current CBA does not expire until after next season concludes. So, why then is the NFL hoping to strike a deal so soon?<\/p>\n
Geoff Schwartz, a former NFL lineman who now writes for SBNation.com<\/em>, noted in a column that the league\u2019s television contracts will expire in the near future. A new collective bargaining agreement with an extra week of regular-season games plus two additional playoff games would certainly drive up the price the league can command from the networks.<\/p>\n\u201cOn top of that, if an agreement can\u2019t be reached, it could lead to a lockout next off-season,\u201d he added. \u201cThat would leave a bad taste in the mouth of consumers, who have driven NFL ratings and profits up over the last two years of the current CBA deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schwartz hopes the NFLPA will look to make a counter-offer instead of just taking the deal. He noted that the increase in the players\u2019 share of the revenue from 47 percent for a 16-game schedule to 48.5 percent for a 17-game schedule is not enough new revenue to risk physical injury.<\/p>\n
He also noted the \u201cvague\u201d mention of sports betting<\/a> revenue in the NFL agreement needs more specifics around it.<\/p>\n\u201cThat will explode the revenue of the league,\u201d Schwartz added. \u201cThis needs to be more defined, But it adds to the reason the NFL wants this done now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Friday, the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) voted to table a proposed collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with league owners. The proposed labor contract would add an extra regular-season game for each team and expand the playoffs. The deal also guarantees players a share of gambling revenue. However, the vague wording in the fact sheet does […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":127745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
US Sports Betting Likely to Grow from NFL Proposed Changes to Season<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n