Sports betting storylines to watch this NFL season
Yahoo Sports' Nick Bromberg joins Yahoo Finance to discuss the upcoming NFL season.
Video Transcript
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SEANA SMITH: The NFL season is kicking off tonight and we have defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers are taking on the Dallas Cowboys. So here to talk about what we can expect over the next several weeks, we want to bring in Nick Bromberg. He's a writer for Yahoo Sports.
And Nick, it's good to see you. So fans are going to be back in stadiums this year. Lots of hype going into tonight's game and going into the first weekend of the NFL. What are you most excited about this season?
NICK BROMBERG: You know, just like in week one of college football season over Labor Day weekend, it felt normal. And I think I'm kind of looking forward to feeling normal with the NFL season and full stadiums or at least close to full stadiums across the country. I think fans are going to see a NFL season much more like 2019 visually than they saw in 2020. You know, and I think I speak for everyone when I say that hopefully, we can have unrestricted capacity at all NFL stadiums throughout the entire 2021 season.
ADAM SHAPIRO: There was a time when if we were talking about betting on athletics, on sports, you had to say gaming because the gambling industry was very nervous about the word betting. That's gone and it's OK. This is huge, when you say it's going to be like 2019, it's going to be 2019 on steroids because that's where I mean, huge amounts of revenue. Do you have any insight as to what the fans can expect because the world is changing, we saw the deal with the Jets and FuboTV?
NICK BROMBERG: Yeah, absolutely. And I think I saw today that 29 of 30 NFL stadiums now have contactless payment. It's only contactless at all concession stands, so we have advanced quickly because I think the Falcons were the first contactless payment stadium and that was only three or four years ago.
So we have advanced a lot from the last time that stadiums were at a full capacity. And also too, you look at the revenue that teams are going to have now with full stadiums for an entire season. And I think there's going to be a lot of revenue to be had with legalized sports betting across the country.
SEANA SMITH: Yeah, Nick, speaking of the legalized sports betting, I guess what do you think that's going to do for fan engagement? Because we know that this is so critical here, not only for this league but obviously, it applies to all professional sports. But just in terms of the NFL being able to keep their fans engaged during the entire season, I guess how big of an assist do you think sports betting will be to this?
NICK BROMBERG: It's going to be huge. And I think it's going to be a complement to fantasy football. You know, we talk about the explosion of the NFL in the last 25 and 30 years in popularity, and that it is directly tied into fantasy football. And obviously, we have a huge and awesome fantasy platform here at Yahoo Sports but now you can bet on games.
So there's the legal complement in 12 states, plus Washington DC at Yahoo Sports where you can legally bet on the game, both before, during, and then ahead of next week's game. So I think that's absolutely huge. Your fantasy team stinks, and you think you really like a line going into next week or even the Monday Night game, you know you're going to lose your fantasy match-up, you have an opportunity to have a win there on a Monday night game. That's completely legal in your state.
ADAM SHAPIRO: You think people have been reluctant though to place their bets so to speak because if there's a forfeiture because of let's say a team has a COVID outbreak and they have to game off, you lose the bet is that holding people back?
NICK BROMBERG: I don't think it's going to be that big of a deal this year. Though I will say my advice would be to wait as long as possible because you know, while a significant majority of the NFL players are vaccinated, we still don't know for sure which key players aren't vaccinated. And that is important because the COVID protocols are different for a vaccinated player and an unvaccinated player.
An unvaccinated player, if he has a COVID close contact, he's out for 10 days. Unless the team is on its bye week, he is guaranteed to miss a game. So my advice would be unless you really, really like a line, you should wait as long as possible until kickoff. So Sunday morning when you look at the injury reports, see who your team's inactives are, that's going to be the prime time to place your bet.
SEANA SMITH: So Nick, give us some picks and one I need to know if you were in a survivor pool-- I am this year-- what would you pick for week one? And then also just overall, this season, I guess, who do you see, you don't have to necessarily pick a Super Bowl champion but who do you see at least doing pretty well this season?
NICK BROMBERG: All right, so I live in Kansas City. You can obviously guess who I'm a fan of. I think it's hard to pick against the Super Bowl rematch this year between the Chiefs and the Bucs. I would like to think with the Chiefs' rebuilt offensive line that they would be a little more competitive than they were in last season's Super Bowl.
As far as the survivor pick, I think you've got to go big or go home and use a team that you may not-- you want to use the rest of the season. And I am eyeing, this sounds crazy, the Jacksonville Jaguars at the Houston Texans. The Jaguars and Urban Meyer, I don't necessarily know if it's going to be the smoothest of rookie seasons for both he as an NFL head coach and Trevor Lawrence at quarterback but the Houston Texans have absolutely the worst roster in the NFL. The Jaguars are favored by 3. I quite frankly, don't think there's any excuse for the Jaguars not to win this football game. And you think about it this way, you use the Jaguars once, you don't have to worry about them the rest of the year and you're not burning a team like the Chiefs or the Bucs, who are now nine-point favorites tonight against the Dallas Cowboys.
SEANA SMITH: You know, Nick. I had the 49ers as my pick but I have until 7:00 PM to change that. So I might need to rethink some things. And maybe I'll take your advice there and go with the Jaguars. Nick Bromberg, great to speak with you. Writer for Yahoo Sports.
