NFL Creates Sportsbetting Executive Position

This week the National Football League hired longtime employee David Highhill as VP and General Manager of Sports Betting, the first position in the league directly related to the activity.

Highhill has worked for the NFL for a decade, and he helped lead the league's initial forays into sportsbetting sponsorships. He will now continue this expansion, as more and more teams look to cash in on lucrative contracts.

The move comes after the US Supreme Court overturned the PASPA law of 1992 in 2018, thereby allowing individual states to legalize and regulate the activity. The NFL had been notoriously anti-gambling for decades and even lobbied to keep sportsbetting from being legalized. Now though, it appears that the league is coming around, having signed multiple partnership deals with gaming operators. Currently, there are 30 states that offer regulated sportsbetting.

Speaking to media outlet ESPN this week Highhill said, "We're going to focus on serving fans and the games rather than becoming a sportsbook.

"We know there is a profile of fans that are most interested and a profile of fans that are less interested. So serving fans where they are is very important and that goes right alongside with supporting our relationship with the National Council on Problem Gambling and insuring that we take a leadership position on problem gambling."

NFL training camps will begin for the upcoming season in July, with preseason games slated to begin in August and the regular season kicking off in September. The games are