Tech, gambling, alcohol helped NFL earn almost $2 billion in

The National Football League is nearing $2 billion in partnership fees, the most in professional sports.

Agreements from betting firms and technology companies helped the NFL lure a record $1.8 billion in sponsorship revenue, sports partnerships consultancy firm IEG told CNBC. The NFL’s figure is a 12% increase year-over-year from $1.62 billion it made in the 2020 season. It pulled $1.47 billion from sponsorships in the 2019 season.

Sports gambling companies, casinos, and lotteries saw the most significant spike in NFL sponsorship agreements. DraftKings, FanDuel, and Caesars became sportsbook partners in 2021 after the companies struck five-year pacts worth just under $1 billion combined. The NFL also landed secondary deals with BetMGM, WynnBet, FoxBet, and PointsBet.

Partnership deals with the NFL usually run from three to seven years and cost a minimum of $10 million per year for smaller companies. More prominent firms could pay more than $200 million per year.

Verizon has one of the more prominent NFL deals and paid the league over $300 million annually. Last September, the communications company agreed to a new 10-year deal with the NFL and added 5G rights. But the new deal doesn’t include live streams of games, making it less valuable. That also means the NFL’s mobile rights are also up for grabs.

IEG’s estimates come days after the NFL produced one of its most memorable playoff weekends that included the thrilling overtime game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills. That game attracted over 42 million viewers, the highest divisional postseason game since 2017.

“It’s not coming from traditional places,” said Peter Laatz, IEG’s global managing director. “It’s coming from emerging categories. Not only are we seeing emerging talent on the field; we’re seeing emerging categories.”

Although gambling sponsorships saw the biggest increase in the NFL’s 2021 season, tech deals ranked first in absolute dollar figures for 2021, led by Microsoft. The tech giant has an on-the-field deal with the league, which uses Microsoft’s Surface tablet. That agreement is worth roughly $100 million per year, according to IEG data.

Gambling deals ranked second, and alcoholic beverage deals ranked third.

Last December, the NFL renewed its deal with Anheuser-Busch, which pays the NFL more than $250 million per year for beer and hard seltzer rights. The company lost control of hard alcohol rights, which Diageo took over for a reported $30 million per year.

The NFL put its wine and champagne rights up for auction but has yet to strike a partnership for that category.

“They’ve cut those categories (tech and alcohol) pretty fine,” said Laatz, calling the NFL’s sponsorship money a “runway revenue train.” He then projected the NFL would endure a “finer cutting of categories” in the future to grow deals in the U.S.