While other sports leagues may have already signed up with official betting partners, the NFL is the latest. The league announced that three sportsbooks have signed on to be its official betting partners. By becoming an official betting partner, the sportsbooks will gain access to official league data, promote their association with the NFL and tie their brands to statistics. If the five-year deal holds, the NFL will earn nearly $1 billion from the deal. But the NFL can opt out after three years.

The NFL concluded that their ideal sports betting legislation would include substantive licensing requirements, clear markets, and consumer protection. They would require the operators to avoid insider betting and place an onus on them to do so. In order to pass the bill, however, the league needed to secure support from the 32 owners of NFL teams. The owners were split into four groups: sports fans, professional players, and league officials. These groups would support the new regulation. The league also wanted the new laws to cover both mobile and in-person betting.

Since the Supreme Court’s ruling last May, seven states have allowed sports betting and have collected nearly $8 billion in bets. Four more states are poised to follow suit in the near future. The NFL has also claimed that legalized sports betting threatens the moral thread of their sport, but so far, the integrity of its games appears to have escaped the first season of sports betting. However, it’s unclear whether the NFL will continue to allow betting if it does not receive a significant portion of its revenue.