Report: NFL makes major change to monitor suspicious gambling activity

The NFL will have on-site investigators present on game days this year across the league in an attempt to combat suspicious gambling activities, ESPN reports.

The implimentation of this service comes after the NFL has seen an uptick in gambling-related suspensions throughout the league in recent years. 10 were suspended during the 2023 offseason alone. In an attempt to maintain the game’s integrity, the NFL will now beef up its security measures.

An integrity representative has been assigned to all 32 NFL teams, according to Cathy Lanier, the senior vice president of NFL security. She revealed that the process originially implemented back in 2018 after sports gambling became regulated in the United States.

These representatives, who are typically retired FBI members or executive-level police officers, do everything from roaming the sidelines, to walking around the stadiums to simply sitting in the press box.

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

One of the jobs Lanier’s teams have are to track betting markets on game days as well. They’re looking for drastic odds movements — which would mean a large sum of money was wagered on that particular bet — for point spreads and various player props. A large sway one way or another could raise concerns for possible game manipulation and a breach of the game’s integrity.

However, there are some situations where suddenly odds are shifted dramatically that raise an eyebrow but for Lanier’s security team, but are ultimately deemed as non-treats such as injury news or if a player is ruled in/out.

This offseason, the NFL has mandated in-person gambling training across the league that highlight points such as players never being allowed to bet on the NFL, never having someone bet on the NFL for you, to not share insider team information, not to gamble inside a team facility, amother other rules.

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

The NFL’s head of compliance, Sabrina Perel, said that she was pleased to see the number of gamling-related slow down during the 2023 regular season after 10 suspensions were handed down last offseason. She believes that the new trianing is aiding in helping educate NFL players on the league’s zero tolerance policy of gambling.