NHL Exposed For Hypocritical Stance On Sports Betting

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Graham Montgomery
December 7, 2023 (7:54 PM)

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Every Hockey fan knows how prevalent sports betting advertising has become in the industry. It is hard to go through even a single broadcast without coming across at least on advertisement for some kind of sports betting service. It wasn't always this way though.

Bettman Exposed For Flip Flopping On Sports Betting In Hockey

Money talks. And apparently there was enough money behind sports betting for it to creep its way into the NHL despite commissioner Gary Bettman swearing up and down that the league would not partner with sports betting services. In fact, it was not that long ago when Bettman was among the leaders fighting against the growing prevalence of gambling in our society.

Less than a decade ago, Gary Bettman joined commissioners in opposing sports gambling, writing letters to the Supreme Court fighting its legalization.

Yesterday, @BetMGM added a licensed online slot game in NJ that has all 32 NHL team logos.

This is just the latest advancement in sports betting within the NHL.

NHL Doubles Down On Sports Betting With New Partnership

Last month, the league announced a new partnership with PENN entertainment group that will bring ESPN and the SCORE brands to the NHL in terms of sports betting opportunities.

PENN Entertainment announces partnership with the @NHL for online sports betting brands ESPN BET and theScore Bet.

Of course, the NHL has also been handing out punishment to players for betting on sports, which seems contradictory to their new policy. If it was related to bets made on NHL games, that could make sense, but apparently in the case of Shane Pinto, he did not even bet on NHL games and yet he still got a 41 game suspension.

At this point it seems like the league will continue to embrace sports betting until the money says otherwise.

As seen on Gary Bettman Exposed By Insiders For Take On Gambling