The NFL’s relationship with gambling appears to be expanding as reports are circulating that a deal with Aristocratic Gaming to create an NFL virtual slot game has already been consummated.
Let’s take a closer look at the deal between both companies and analyze how it may impact top sportsbooks.
NFL Hits the Jackpot
Anyone who has ever been to a casino has walked through endless rows of slot machines. Most are unbranded but others, like the ubiquitous Wheel of Fortune, are associated with a TV show or movie. Most recently, the NFL. Aristocratic Gaming has already rolled out several NFL retail slot machine games after striking a multi-year deal with the league in 2021.
NFL retail slots with titles like Overtime Cash™, Super Bowl Link™, NFL Kickoff™, Winning Drive™, and Rings of Victory™ have followed or will follow its first land-based creation named NFL Super Bowl of Jackpots™.
“The unveiling of the first NFL-theme slot machines represents an opportunity to bring the League closer to our fans in a new area,” said Joe Ruggiero, SVP of Consumer Products at the NFL.
These NFL-themed slot machines have proven to be successful in what is a fiercely competitive market. Customers are allowed to pick and play their favorite team, which brings a tailored experience to the user.
Hector Fernandez, CEO of Aristocrat Gaming, said: “After nearly two years of collaboration with the NFL and NFL Players Association, we finally get to see these game-changing machines in action. A tremendous thank you to our teams around the world for their collective brilliance to make today possible.”
Virtual World
But now the ante has been upped, as the two parties have reportedly inked a second pact that will see Aristocratic Gaming develop and license several virtual NFL slot titles. But before these titles are added to any number of catalogs in the nation’s seven iGaming markets including New Jersey, Delaware, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, they will likely be introduced as social gaming apps.
To that end, Aristocratic Gaming has given the reins to its virtual social gaming division, Product Madness, a gaming developer it acquired in 2012 to compete in the slightly different non-cash virtual realm.
Ben Judah, a spokesman for Product Madness, commented on the deal with the NFL and stated, “We are currently in a phase of market testing which all of our games go through.”
The initial rollout will be similar to a soft launch in that it will be based on a sweepstakes-type blueprint in which customers can purchase virtual coins to play the NFL-themed digital slot machines in which they can win prizes and not cash. If a customer runs out of the digital currency, more may be purchased.
After decades of NFL commissioners railing about the evils of sports betting and how it posed a serious threat to the integrity of the league, the tide certainly shifted the moment sports betting opened up after PASPA was overruled in 2018. Since that time, the NFL has had no problem cozying up to sports betting platforms like Caesars, DraftKings, and FanDuel, allowing them to pay big bucks for an NFL sponsorship or a partnership with one of its franchises.
It should be noted that iGaming is the holy grail of the digital gambling world and one whose profits dwarf that of mobile sports betting. Although NFL virtual slots will begin as a sweepstakes type of gaming, it shouldn’t be long before they are in the real-money domain of powerhouse iGaming catalogs in every state that allows it.
