The Washington Redskins will be the first NFL team to have its games featured in a gambling-focused broadcast.
NBC Sports Washington will offer a simulcast of the team’s four preseason games on its secondary channel, NBC Sports Washington Plus, which will give one person a $1,000 cash prize every quarter. The free-to-play interactive broadcasts will be based around a similar model that the network used during eight games in the 2018-2019 Wizards broadcasts during this past NBA season.
Network general manager Damon Phillips says that the ratings and engagement around the broadcasts increased during the alternate telecasts and believes that these types of broadcasts are “The way of the future,” saying, “There’s going to be a gamification of television broadcasts, and this is one of the first examples of it.”
The plan puts the network and the NFL franchise in forward-looking position ahead of online and mobile gambling that could be legalized in the viewing area in the future.
