Yesterday was a disappointing result for NFL fans and the gambling industry. It had been hoped by many that a ruling would put a halt to the NFL lockout, but that didn’t happen. U.S. District Court Judge Susan Richard Nelson said she would need two weeks to rule on whether the lockout imposed by the owners last month violates federal antitrust law.
So it’s back to the negotiations, which haven’t exactly been producing any results. It’s been obvious from day one that the NFL owners wanted and plotted this work stoppage with the intent of having a collective bargaining agreement that gave them a bigger piece of the pie, and take a cut of the 51 percent of revenue the players currently receive.
Our greatest beef as industry professionals far surpasses our love for the game, the game itself is our livelihood, or at least a large component of it.
An extended work stoppage that could cut into the regular NFL season has become a very real possibility at the rate these negotiations are going and the fact that the NFL Players Union has no trust in the owners to act in good faith.
At the end of this month some lucky kid will be drafted the first overall pick in the NFL Draft, sadly it will probably still be a league with an unclear future and mired in a messy collective bargaining dispute.
A long NFL work stoppage will hurt many local economies and affect many industries, and let’s just say the financial results for many sportsbooks won’t be looking too pretty the longer this mess continues.
