I gamble on NFL games. What started out as a funny thing to do a few years ago has turned into something a little more significant for me - basically, a buddy of mine and I put in a couple of hundred bucks and started playing parlays together and we just keep on watching it grow every year. We don't have a system really - we just watch a lot of football. In fact, last year all we did was break even so believe me I'm not trying to get anybody to use my picks. Anyhow, I'm putting together a site for us to manage our picks a little bit better and I'd like to open it up for others as well so we can see the input from the public at large and see how that meshes with our own thoughts regarding any given game on any given week during the NFL season. I'm not looking to get hundreds of thousands of visitors, but I imagine that the site's structure will be very friendly to others who have a similar mindset. I know that the NFL keeps a pretty tight wrap on who and what they license, but I also know that there are a ton of NFL related sites out there that don't pay licensing fees. I know that a couple of you DP'ers have NFL sites, so I'm curious as to what guidelines you follow so that you don't end up having to pay fees to the NFL. I haven't seen a lot of easily accessible information regarding what terms you can use or what terms you can't - I do know that the term "Superbowl" is entirely off limits - even Disney owned radio stations in my area call it "The Big Game". Can I use Team names? Like "Minnesota Vikings", or do I have to say things like "Vikings" or even "Vikes"? Or does any NFL related site at all require licensing and like some ringtones sites are people just ignoring the licensing requirements? And past that - since this is a gambling related site, not a gambling site - i.e. we talk about making picks for the purpose of helping people figure out what to bet on, but we don't actually run a casino - does that mean that adsense/ypn are not an option as revenue generation sources? I certainly don't want to parse my words. I'd rather be honest about what we are doing. If that's the case, what do people with gambling sites do? I'd rather the site be free than post a bunch of online casino affiliate links - that just seems wrong to me. Unless I fork over some dough, I'll never know about the legitimacy of any particular casino and even the one I use every year - do I really want to recommend it? I'm happy with it, but all I do is NFL betting and I really don't know what other casino's have to offer that might be better. I just know that they pay me when I win which is a pretty slim recomendation.
Well, the area is blurred a bit. I am a former professional sports bettor and handicapper in Vegas. Our city is full of people touting their sports picks services. In fact, you can turn on ESPN radio daily to hear them. I am not giving legal advice, but in theory, telling you that you can't say the name of a team violates the first amendment. However, if you have any mechanisms associated with the venture that generate considerations of any kind, one could make the argument that you are profiting from using the trademarked name. Not saying that it would hold up in court, but who knows these days. If you want to get an idea how a larger operation runs in Vegas, check out Vegasinsiders.com. As to adsense, talk to them. I actually asked them once for adwords and they told me that my site that talked about gambling was ok, because it was not a gambling source. I no longer link to online gambling, because it's technically illegal in the USA. While nothing is really done about it, there's no point in giving the government a reason or extra ammo. What you would be engaging in is the selling of information (if you charged) or simply offering information to the general public. As long as you don't live in Washington State, you should be allowed to do that. Check your local laws though. Things are much different here in Vegas.
Wow - a handicapper. That must have been fun. I'm definitely thinking more along the lines of - write the site for myself and if other people come and enjoy it, that's cool too. I did find a number to the NFL for licensing questions that I'm going to try on Monday, but it looked like it was more for product licensing. I think I'm going to stick with using common slang for the teams where possible - niners, vikes, etc - at least until I fully understand the ramifications. Vegasinsiders.com just seemed like a gateway page. I thought I'd been there before, but I just got a screen full of ads and a pop-up window attempt this time - zero content.
As of right now there has been not many things done to regulate these type of websites, but in the gambling affiliate community there is always a buzz about legalities that it is coming soon. The fact is that you can put a lot of hard work in the site, and if it does come across from somebody who has any affiliaton with the NFL and call you the next day to take the site off, or not to use anything that is required to get license, which is pretty much the name "NFL" , the team names, etc. The online sports betting industry is huge in the US, altough not exactly legal. Webmasters who are involved with this type of things like it because you get lifetime commissions at some places ( the better ones at least) for the players that you refer. So bottom line is , you can put a site up, but in the future anything can happen, including you can loose all the work, hours you put in it. stojan