Bettman Sees the Sports Betting Light<\/strong><\/h2>\nWhile those comments may honestly reflect Bettman\u2019s current feelings \u2013 and based on the direction the NHL has taken over the past few months, there\u2019s no reason to doubt his sincerity \u2013 they also represent a complete turnaround from comments he made years earlier.<\/p>\n
In 2012, when the NHL and other major sports leagues tried to stop New Jersey from legalizing sports betting, Bettman gave a different opinion during a deposition, saying that sports betting could ruin the atmosphere at NHL games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that when somebody loses a bet, they tend to sometimes confuse their motives in rooting and enjoying the game because if you lose your bet, even though the team you\u2019re rooting for wins, you have a potentially conflicted outcome,\u201d Bettman said at the time.<\/p>\n
Those comments became a talking point again on Thursday, when Bettman took part in the American Gaming Association\u2019s Sports Betting Executive Summit at the MGM National Harbor casino in Maryland.<\/p>\n
\u201cTimes have changed,\u201d Bettman told conference attendees, according to the Chicago Tribune<\/em>. \u201cOnce the Supreme Court ruled, we got to get with the program. And frankly, as a practical matter, I owed it to our fans, I owed it to our clubs, to embrace the evolving world, whether it\u2019s sports betting or changes in technology. In this day and age, you either evolve or become extinct.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\nWilliam Hill is also doing its best to evolve to a changing gambling landscape. In its case, the company is attempting to become a major player in the US sports betting market to make up for challenges in its home territory of the UK, where a coming cut in the maximum bet on fixed odds betting terminals is expected to severely cut into the company\u2019s profits.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NHL commissioner Gary Bettman may have once been a skeptic when it comes to sports betting, but those days are long past, as the league entered into a multiyear partnership with William Hill on Thursday. The deal will make William Hill an official sports betting partner of the NHL, the third such agreement made by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":101672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
William Hill Becomes Official Sports Betting Partner of NHL<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n