The 100th season of the National Football League (NFL) kicked off yesterday and one team owner has reportedly declared that the rising popularity of sportsbetting in America could result in his sport increasing the value of its television broadcast rights deal by up to 50%.

According to a Thursday report from Yahoo! Finance, Jerry Jones (pictured) has been responsible for the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys franchise since 1989 and believes that sportsbetting will aid the sport as it renegotiates its agreements with executives at NBC, Fox, CBS and ESPN. The current ten-year deal worth approximately $5 billion is due to expire in 2022 and the 76-year-old announced that these broadcasters could now be willing to hand over a combined total worth as much as $7.5 billion in order to continue featuring all of the gridiron action.

Persistent popularity:

Yahoo! Finance reported that 2018’s edition of the NFL saw its average game viewership figures rise by 5% year-on-year to about 15.8 million while the sport continued to be one of the most popular things on television as its contests occupied 64 of the 100 most-watched broadcasts.

Contrary course:

Although most television networks in American have recently been experiencing diminished viewership figures, Jones reportedly proclaimed that ‘the NFL has disproportionately not had that kind of drop off.’ He moreover stated that his sport is ‘actually stronger than it has ever been’ in terms of broadcast figures and that this is due to ‘serve us well when we are renegotiating our agreements with all the networks.’

PASPA premium:

Before May of 2018 and Yahoo! Finance reported that American sportsbetting aficionados were reportedly only able to place legal wagers at venues within the state of Nevada. However, it explained that the United States Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) opened up this market with ten states encompassing Delaware, New Jersey, Iowa, New York, Arkansas, Mississippi, Indiana, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Rhode Island having so far joined ‘The Silver State’ in legalizing some form of sports wagering.

Jones stated…

“Betting and wagering has been an integral part of the NFL for a long time through individuals, in various forms, making their wagers, my town against your town. But it’s always to the benefit of the viewership. The viewership is where our numbers will increase. People will stay longer. That value is how our sport will benefit from gaming. I dare say that gaming will increase the value of television, of presenting our games, I dare say it will go up 50% because of the gaming concentration.”