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Anyone who’s tuned into a sporting event on television over the past few years is all too aware that gambling has managed to permeate basically every aspect of those broadcasts. Now, a new study has highlighted just how bad it’s gotten after taking a look at the most recent Stanley Cup Final.
It’s been seven years since the landmark Supreme Court ruling that opened the door for the legalization of sports betting in America. It was a theoretically welcome change that brought what was already a fairly widespread practice out of the shadows, and the majority of states have passed laws that have contributed to the growth of an industry that raked in close to $14 billion in revenue in 2024.
I think most sports fans would acknowledge it’s nice to have the option to use your phone to place some bets from the comfort of your couch, but I am very confident that even more of them would take issue with the advertising blitz the companies that facilitate those wagers have harnessed in order to drum up business.
Every single one of North America’s “Big Four” leagues has gotten into bed with a sportsbook that paid to earn the right to position itself as their Official Betting Partner, which has led to some awkward situations for the ones that have had to discipline players who’ve been linked to the spate of scandals that have coincided with the rise of legalized betting.
You’d be hard-pressed to name a single broadcaster that hasn’t agreed to a similar arrangement, and televised games have become a parade of traditional commercials for sportsbooks, in-game ads, and ethically questionable segments where on-air talent is tasked with peddling parlays to the masses.
However, those messages may have taken over those contests even more than you might think.
Fans who tuned into the Stanley Cup Final in 2025 were exposed to a sports betting ad every 13 seconds during one game
The NHL has cozied up to sportsbooks including FanDuel, BetMGM, ESPN, and (in Canada) bet365 since sports betting was legalized, and there was no shortage of gambling ads when the Panthers and the Oilers faced off in the Stanley Cup Finals for the second season in a row earlier this year.
Researchers at the University of Bristol decided to see just how many there were in a study where they analyzed the six games that were needed to decide that series. The analysis tabulated a grand total of 5,913 gambling “messages,” which included traditional commercials, in-studio gambling segments, board ads, and the PlayAlberta logo on Edmonton’s jerseys (the last of which were responsible for a significant chunk of that number).
That amounted to one de facto ad every 17 seconds, although the study noted that the series-high 982 that were tallied in Game 5 brought that average down to one every 13 seconds.
The researchers also looked at all seven games of the NBA Finals between the Thunder and the Pacers, which were responsible for relatively paltry 265 betting ads over the course of seven games (the equivalent of around one every four minutes).
The NHL and its teams need all the help they can get to compete against bigger leagues, but at some point, there needs to be some restraint and a little bit of self-reflection.