When legal sports betting first burst onto the American scene back in 2018, everyone universally agreed it would be a huge moneymaker for pro leagues. But did they know just how much money sports leagues stood to make within the first decade of operations? Probably not. Because that number is in the billions.
Let that sticker shock sink in. Granted, this presumes it needs to sink in at all. Sports betting in the United States is beyond prevalent at this point. Forty-states now offer it in some form, in addition to the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The amount of revenue generated by the sports betting sites has approached staggering levels as a result. Like this hyper-detailed MyBookie review notes, sportsbooks collectively earned more than $13.7 billion during the previous calendar year.
While that number is huge, it’s not especially hard to believe. The ease with which people can bet on sports using their phones is at an all-time high. Combine this access with the sheer breadth of betting lines available, and the industry is set up for mass appeal and the profits that come with it.
Yet, the value of gambling to sports teams, specifically, is less clear. This opaqueness is receiving even more scrutiny now, as the number of exposed betting scandals continues to rise. Though experts point out these instances of game or performance manipulation are proof that regulatory systems are working, they are also a stain on the integrity of the game.
In the immediate aftermath of betting scandals that rocked Major League Baseball and the NBA at some point in 2025, a poll conducted by Sacred Heart University, WFSB and CT Insider revealed that 75 percent of participants believe that “sports gambling corruption is more widespread than what’s being uncovered.” Why, then, have sports leagues and teams fought tooth and nail in favor of betting legalization? Isn’t the risk of turning off fans too great relative to what they stand to make?
Apparently not.
Sports Teams Make a Boatload of Money Off Betting Partnerships
The question from above is rooted in the quixotic ties between sports teams and betting operators. Professional franchises are not the parties running sports betting sites. That makes it harder to understand how much money is in it for them.
Two major factors end up rising above the rest, the first of which is partnerships. It is more common for each league and every individual team within them to have some kind of sponsorship deals with a gambling operator. As it turns out, these agreements can be quite lucrative, writes Chris Isidore of CNN:
“Once states started legalizing sports gambling following a 2018 Supreme Court ruling, sponsorship deals soon followed. Now, all of the major US sports leagues and most individual teams have such sponsorship deals. Numerous teams, including the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals, MLB’s Arizona Diamondbacks and the NBA’s Washington Wizards, have signed deals to put physical betting shops inside their stadiums and arenas, Matheson noted…Direct sponsorship deals between various legal sports books and the top American sports leagues are worth billions of dollars spread over several years and likely more than $1 billion annually, said Victor Matheson, an economics professor at the College of the Holy Cross and an expert on the business of sports and gambling.”
No pro-sports league is walking away from an additional $1 billion (or more in annual revenue). If we prorate that per individual team agreements, we could be talking about an additional $300 million for each franchise.
Betting Also Increases Eyeballs on Live Sports
Interest levels are the second, potentially more lucrative byproduct of sports betting. Audiences are statistically more likely to tune into live sporting events and follow entire leagues when they have financial stakes in them.
That makes sense on a logistical level. But it is hard to track from a financial sports perspective. Leagues and teams cannot really monetize interest.
Still, other metrics can provide insight into the impact of sports betting on pro-league business models. Traditional ratings for live events are among these figures. Increasing the number of eyeballs in front of a screen for long-form entertainment is harder than ever. Everything is so decentralized following the rise of streaming apps.
At the same time, those same streaming apps are a vessel through which these leagues make money. Sustained interest in live sports is what has driven Amazon, Netflix, Apple TV and many others to purchase broadcast rights at a premium. Would they trust in the number of eyeballs on those events if sports betting remained illegal? It’s tough to say for sure. But probably not.
Beyond that, leagues and teams can use social media engagement to track and gauge interest. If you use X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, FaceBook, TikTok, etc., then you’ve likely seen posts about big-time betting wins, bad beats, live-commentary on preferred outcomes and anything else related to someone’s personal wager on a game or stat line.
These people are more likely to consume sports through streaming services, or via highlight packages on individual social apps. Once upon a time, it was difficult to monetize social media content and engagement. In some ways, it still is. But the rising number of short-form eyeballs are being chased by advertisers. They will shell out gobs of money in separate deals.
So while sports betting partnerships may be worth billions to pro leagues and teams on their own, the money legal gambling drives is actually far greater, because it trickles into other areas of operation.
Next time you’re wondering why leagues have aligned themselves so closely with sports betting properties, well, there’s your answer.
