NFL staying ‘proactive’ to combat betting threats

After a rash of suspensions in 2023, the NFL has not handed out any punishments for violations of its gambling policy in over a year, but in a landscape with widespread betting, protecting the integrity of the games remains a priority for the league.

The NFL is spotlighting its approach to combat betting-related threats ahead of the 2024 season and, for the first time, sharing details about its team of investigators, who are on site on game days monitoring for “suspicious activity.”

Cathy Lanier, senior vice president of NFL security, told ESPN that an integrity representative is assigned to each team, a practice that began in 2018, shortly after regulated betting began spreading across the United States. The integrity representatives, who include retired FBI agents or executive-level police officers, according to the league, roam stadiums from the sidelines to the press box during games.

Lanier declined to provide specific examples of what constitutes suspicious activity but said the league’s integrity representatives are monitoring for “fair competition issues.”

“They’re looking for anything that is an anomaly, anything that stands out, anything that might raise concerns,” Lanier, a former chief of police in Washington, D.C, told ESPN.

The NFL suspended 10 players for gambling violations during a three-month span in the spring and summer of 2023. The league said it found no signs of game manipulation in any of the instances, but five players were found to have bet on the NFL, including on games involving their own team in some cases.

According to the league, every player contract has included a standard “Integrity of the Game” clause for at least the past 20 years, and the NFL gambling policy requires all personnel to “always give their best effort.” Anyone found guilty of attempted or actual game-fixing faces a permanent ban from the league.

Lanier’s team monitors betting markets before and during games, looking for dramatic odds movement, including on point spreads and player props such as the over/under on a quarterback’s passing yards. Significant shifts in the odds are relayed to the on-site integrity representatives as a warning for potential game manipulation. The integrity representatives also act as liaisons with state gaming regulators and assist in investigations regarding potential gambling policy violations.

The NFL analyzes notable odds movements and, with partners Genius Sports and U.S. Integrity, tries to determine the cause. A change in the weather forecast, an injury report or even speculation from pundits on TV or bettors on social media can make the line move. Both Genius Sports and U.S. Integrity watch over betting markets and flag unusual activity at sportsbooks.

“If the sportsbooks are moving the lines, and they’re moving pretty dramatically, is that because of any injury that’s been reported, or is there something else that’s going on that’s going to make us suspicious?” Lanier said.

NFL security also monitors for criminal threats by fans to players, coaches and officials at stadiums and online. Lanier said such threats have increased significantly in recent years but are not always tied to sports betting.

“There’s a variety of reasons that people will make these pretty horrendous threats,” Lanier said. “But when they rise to a criminal level and we can identify the person that’s making those threats, we now have a process in place to ban that person from ever attending an NFL game or event in the future.”

This offseason, the NFL mandated in-person training for players, which highlighted six key rules for gambling:

• Never bet on the NFL
• Never have someone bet for you on the NFL
• Never share inside team information
• Never gamble at your team facility or while traveling for any game or staying at a team hotel
• Never enter a sportsbook during the NFL playing season
• Never play daily fantasy football

Former NFL players, including Delanie Walker in Tennessee and Will Shields in Kansas City, have led the training sessions, which are regularly introduced by head coaches, according to the league. The presentation the players see, which was reviewed by ESPN, was created by a collaboration between the NFL Players Association, former players, teams and heads of player engagement.

A spokesperson for the NFLPA told ESPN that it continues “to keep our player membership informed and aware of the league’s gambling policy so that they may adhere to its guidelines.”

Sabrina Perel, the NFL’s head of compliance, said in-person training provided a better avenue for players to ask questions. Rookies often asked about the rules for visiting sportsbooks and playing daily or fantasy football during the training sessions, while some veteran players wanted to know about the rules pertaining to betting by family members, who, according to Perel, are not covered by the NFL gambling policy.

“[We’re] just reminding them to protect non-public inside information that they have,” Perel said. “And that while it’s OK to tell a family member about your own condition, you still have to trust that those that are close to them won’t gamble or share the information.”

Perel said she was pleased that the gambling violations subsided this year and believes players better understand the rules and risks that come along with breaking them.

“There were a number of players who were disciplined last year, and we saw those circumstances as a deterrent for future policy violations,” Perel said.

Referees receive customized training on the NFL’s gambling policy from a member of the league’s compliance team annually during the offseason and are subject to the same rules as other league personnel.

“Integrity of the game is paramount to their roles,” Perel said of the referees. “We talk about the integrity risk associated with sports betting.”

Six years ago, only one NFL franchise — the Las Vegas Raiders — resided in a state with a legal sports betting market in the U.S. Now, 25 teams play in states with legal betting markets. As the American betting market continues to mature, the NFL says its approach to identifying and deterring betting-related corruption will continue to evolve.

“I think we have learned an awful lot about how to be extremely proactive, which is the key,” Lanier said. “Success for us is not having to do an investigation.”