Betting on the Finals: Prevalence of Gambling Marketing in the NBA and NHL Finals 2025

This research sheds new light on the extent to which gambling has become embedded in U.S. sport. Across the 13 games analysed, gambling marketing was highly visible with 6,282 gambling messages – particularly in the NHL, where the average exposure exceeded three gambling messages per broadcast minute. The contrast between the two leagues is striking. NHL broadcasts were saturated with gambling content, heavily featuring rinkside ads, jersey sponsorships, and branded betting segments. In contrast, NBA games featured far lower levels of gambling promotion - between 21 and 107 messages per game. This may be linked to the NBA’s growing use of youth-facing platforms such as YouTube, which impose stricter restrictions on gambling advertising. Across both leagues, gambling brands made heavy use of in-stadium integrations such as static and electronic signage, jersey logos, and on-court/on-rink visuals. This aligns with previous research showing that sports sponsorship enables near-constant brand exposure. Influencer and celebrity-driven commercials – featuring figures like Jamie Foxx and Paul Bissonnette – were also prominent, often using humour and entertainment to normalise gambling behaviour. Despite this saturation, only 3.9% of messages included any harm-reduction content, and just 3.7% included age warnings. These findings raise questions about the adequacy of the current U.S. regulatory framework, which remains largely self-regulatory and voluntary in nature.