And speaking of the future...

You can safely bet on three things in life: death, taxes and sports leagues and teams always looking for new revenue streams. Finding ways to make more money is as old as persimmon golf clubs, wood hockey sticks (yes, you don’t have to spend $370 on a new twig) and Yankee pinstripes. 

Of course, as we see the light at the end of the tunnel with the COVID-19 pandemic, sports leagues are working overtime on Zoom and Teams calls to flush out new sources of revenue when life returns to what will be a new normal (and if anyone has a better description for the post-pandemic world, by all means let us know). 

Dave Naylor and Farhan Lalji of TSN. . . er. . . tackled the Canadian Football League’s plans for the future. Not surprisingly, they’re banking on the good folks in the House of Commons and the Senate to give their blessing to the Safe and Regulated Sports Betting Act - and the provinces taking the act and running with it to open up legal sports wagering across the country. From Lalji and Naylor:

“So how does a nine-team CFL find new sources of revenue? The answer, most within the league seem to believe, is via the legalization of single-game sports betting in Canada.

“How much of a windfall this represents is still a mystery, although most believe it could represent an annual influx of between $1.5 and $2 million per team, based on league and team deals, once the market for partnerships in Canada is established.

“That’s a significant amount in a league with a salary cap of $5.25 million.”

In fact, sports betting appears to be the only source of new revenue for the three-down league. We highly recommend reading the entire collaboration by Naylor and Lalji, who present a thorough look at the CFL’s financial model going forward along with touching on the latest discussions with the XFL.

For more insight on how leagues are looking at the revenue opportunities from betting, we take you back to our Q and Eh with CEBL commissioner (and former CFLer) Mike Morreale in March.