The National Football League announced that in-person gambling policy education and training is mandatory for all players. In previous years, in-person gambling education was optional. Now, all players (veterans and rookies) must attend these training sessions, which took place during the spring minicamp window and during training camps.
Coaches, scouts and all other team and league employees, including game officials and referees, also are required to receive the training. In all, more than 17,000 NFL employees (players included) will have received the latest gambling policy education training when the 2024 regular season kicks off on September 5th, 2024.
Now, the education and training, prepared in collaboration with the NFL Players Association, has reviewed its guidelines and reinforced integrity provisions in the policy, including the two key rules: “Never bet on NFL games”, and “do not gamble while with the team in any capacity.”
The education and training were presented to the players by a member of the NFL’s compliance team, the team’s head of player engagement (often a former player) or by other former NFL players using the “train the trainer” approach.
The six main rules for NFL players are:
1) Never bet on the NFL: This includes other NFL events such as draft, combine, Pro Bowl and NFL Honors.
2) Don’t have someone bet for you: Do not ask family, friends or others to place a bet for you.
3) Don’t gamble (no bets on sports, casino or card games) at your team facility or stadium, while traveling for a road game or staying at a team hotel.
4) Don’t share team “inside information”: Don’t share information that hasn’t been announced by the team.
5) Don’t enter a sportsbook during the NFL playing season.
6) Don’t play daily fantasy football.
Coaches, staff and personnel aren’t permitted to bet on any sports. The NFL suspended 10 players last offseason for gambling violations.
“The world has changed dramatically as it relates to sports betting, and it’s incumbent on us maintaining the integrity of our game against those new challenges that have come up the last few years,” said Jeff Miller, Executive Vice President of Communications, Public Affairs and Policy of the NFL.
According to Sabrina Perel, CCO of the NFL: “We learned from last year, when in-person education was optional, the benefits of presenting in-person, including increased engagement and awareness, the opportunity for players to ask questions. So, for all 32 teams this year, the education was conducted at the team facility during minicamps or training camp.”
INTEGRITY AND PENALTIES
Educating players about gambling has been a top priority. To ensure the integrity of the game, an NFL integrity representative (typically retired FBI/executive level police officers) is assigned to each team. Their responsibilities include monitoring suspicious activity on site on game days.
Genius Sports and IC360 continue to monitor every game and key NFL events for any betting activity that may indicate game manipulation or a leak of nonpublic information.
The NFL’s gambling policy states that a player will receive an indefinite suspension (a minimum of one year or two years depending on severity) for betting on an NFL game that involves his team. Game fixing draws a permanent banishment from the league. Players would receive indefinite suspension with a year-long minimum for sharing inside information or using a third party to bet on games. A player who bets on a non-NFL sporting event on team property would receive a two-game suspension without pay for a first violation, a six-game suspension for a second violation and a year-long suspension for a third violation. Referees and non-player team employees found to have violated the gambling policy would be subject to similar disciplinary action.
COMMITMENT TO RESPONSIBLE GAMING
The NFL also is continuing its commitment to impactful responsible gambling initiatives. The league has extended its partnership with the National Council on Problem Gambling with a three-year, USD 6.4 million grant. Keith Whyte, Executive Director at the NCPG, said the funding was used to strengthen the 1-800-Gambler national helpline, for agility grants to help prevent gambling problems among middle school, high school and college students and communities, and an initiative aimed at sports bettors called ‘ResponsiblePlay.org.’ Total contacts via calls on the national helpline, chat and text have increased 103.98% since 2020, according to data provided by the NCPG. Since its launch in 2021, ‘ResponsiblePlay.org’ has received 753,000 new users.
Anna Isaacson, Senior Vice President of Social Responsibility of the NFL, expressed: “We have a very long history of supporting critical societal issues, and accommodating responsible gambling is an issue that we know is impacting people all across the country. NCPG are leaders in that space. They have been leaders for decades. They bring the responsible gambling world together, as well as state coalitions and other advocates. What we learned really quickly, about four years ago, was that this is an extremely underfunded field.”
About this issue, Whyte finalized: “This partnership with the NFL has been instrumental in advancing our mission of minimizing gambling-related harm. This is a great example of the way that the league can lean in and use its platform and reach to address a matter where there wasn’t much interest before.”