Ben Gilbert

I'm pretty sure it's even like their cameras, their on-air talent, all that.

But the NFL, it has the exclusive right to bundle all that together and sell it as a package directly to a consumer if you want access to all the games.

If you don't just want the ones that are on TV near you, if you want the ability to watch any game at any time.

And it is incredible to me that that is worth $2 billion, given the NFL is actually not doing the work to produce it.

The people who are doing the work to produce it are the people who are paying for the privilege to cover those games.

That's a $300 million a year deal.

So that's like a sixth of what one of these channels pays to broadcast the actual NFL.

That's what EA pays to just license the use of the player names and team logos and all that.

Then there's fantasy, both betting and non-betting.

Yeah, and this is a good point to fully bring us to today.

I think it is totally reasonable to say that the things that powered the rise of the NFL were national TV, post-war prosperity, the rise of the middle class, the Madison Avenue explosion, and the league first mentality.

But all of this is in the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

The thing that powered the NFL to be such a dominant force in society today is fantasy football and sports betting.

So let's talk about fantasy first.

Great.

There's like 30 or 40 million people a year in the United States that play fantasy football, thus making it the way that the centerpiece of conversation with their closest friends and families and coworkers, which means you have to watch football in order to have those conversations with the people that are closest to you in your life.

And of course, then there's sports betting, which is now becoming legalized in lots of states, but has been a force for a long time.

Of course, you could bet legally in Las Vegas, but obviously tons of people have bookies that can just place bets for them no matter where they lived.

And I'm shocked, shocked to find gambling going on in this establishment.

And when you've got money riding on a game, you are absolutely going to tune in.