Suspicion of illegal betting activity on Super Bowl

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Were there any illegal activities during the past Finals of the US-American American-Football-Professional League National Football League? This question was asked by the supervisory and the law enforcement authorities in Tennessee. Over 70 Sports betting accounts were permanently blocked during an audit. But are illegal betting activities during the Super Bowl really such a serious issue?

On average, around 90 Million people follow the Super Bowl just in America. In the whole world there are even several hundred million football friends who tune in. No wonder therefore, that such a sports highlight also attracts criminals. The responsible law enforcement authorities in the US Federal State of Tennessee are actually investigating a high two-digit-number of illegal betting activities in the Super Bowl LV of this year. This was reported recently, among others, by the News Portal CBS Sports.

74 Sports betting accounts closed till now

In total, there are currently four authorised sports betting providers in Tennessee. Besides, DraftKings and BetMGM, FanDuel and Action 247 also are among these. Apparently there were irregularities during this year’s Super Bowl-Event, involving two of these four bookmakers. The Tennessee Education Lottery has, as the responsible authority, thereupon carried out several audits and as a first step, 74 Sports betting accounts were closed permanently. The majority of these are apparently accounts of private individuals.

Whilst a sports betting provider has stated that there were no audits carried out there, with Action 247, a further bookmaker has pointed out the responsibility of the regulating authority and then apart from that, kept silent. FanDuel and DraftKings have been rather silent and according to information from CBS Sports, they have refused to make any comments.

The Super Bowl belongs to the largest individual sports events of the World and was this year followed by more than 92 million Americans live from their TV. This is the Final of the US-American American-Football-Professional League National Football League (NFL). The activity usually takes place on the first Sunday in February. Most recently on the 7th. February 2021, Tampa Bay Buccaneers played against the Kansas City Chiefs. The final was won by Tampa with 31:9.

So far, there is unfortunately no detailed information about which illegal betting activities were apparently involved. The CEO of the Tennessee Education Lottery, Rebecca Hargrove, announced that Team-Compliance-Audits have shown that there are significant anomalies in sports betting of two licensed sports betting providers.

According to the current information, there were primarily infringements against the applicable Federal or State Law. Investigations are still going on, so that one still has to wait, to see what the outcome of the supervisory and law enforcement authorities in Tennessee will be.

In the beginning of the Television Broadcasting in 1967, a 30-second advert spot on the Super Bowl had costed 264,000 US-Dollar. In 2009, this was already 3,6 million, in 2015 even 4,4 million and in 2017 5,2 million US-Dollar.

15,5 million Euro placed on Super Bowl betting

Industry representatives are assuming that the four American Betting providers in Tennessee have processed around 15.5 million Us-dollar worth of bets solely from the Super Bowl betting. Around 12,6 million US-Dollar of these were paid out to the gamblers in form of betting winnings. The difference is thus the profit of the betting providers. Internationally, the betting amounts which go over the (virtual) tables may not exceed the three digit million range.

Source: Statista.com

Conclusion

As the Tennessee Lottery has informed, the integrity of the sports is currently not endangered. However investigations are still going on and no details can be given about the illegal activities. It is solely a fact that more than 70 Sports betting accounts have been permanently blocked because of suspicion of illegal betting activities. The next Super Bowl LVI will incidentally take place on the 6th. February 2022!

Picture source: https://pixabay.com/de/illustrations/quarterback-american-football-sport-4020388/