Insider notebook: Money pouring in but NFL gambling still has far to go, MVP rankings, Week 3 picks and more – CBS Sports

Cohen said he wished to leave some meat on the bone for Bears WR Allen Robinson, who is (im) patiently awaiting his extension from Chicago.
” Regardless of whether I got mine or not, its definitely time for him to get his,” Cohen said. “I even left some cash on the plate. I took less so he could get more, so to say. I would definitely like to see my boy get extended.”.
Cohens agreement slips him into the leading 15 agreements for running backs by typical yearly income. It appeared like an excellent deal struck simply inside the start of the season by representative Drew Rosenhaus for his client, who has 2,635 career yards from scrimmage and a first-team All-Pro honor in his bag from two seasons ago.

” Given that their greatest earnings generator is their television agreements, obviously they desire more individuals taking in the product for a longer time period,” Slane says.
” It actually is all about casual bettors and attracting them and finding methods for them to engage. Thats where the race is on. Can you grow the pie from the avid gambler, which is pretty much the low-hanging fruit, to the more casual bettor and get them engaged?”
Thats what the league is counting on as it plans to re-up its TV agreements by early 2021, as our Jason La Canfora reported recently. According to the AGA, 33.2 million Americans plan to wager on video games this year.

As of the spring, 22 states plus D.C. had actually legislated sports wagering, but 5 still hadnt actually enabled gaming. So majority the nation is still without legal sports gaming and simply a third can even do it today.
Whos going to cover the spread in Week 3? Pete Prisco, R.J. White and SportsLines Kenny White join host Will Brinson to use their finest bets and break down every game; listen below and make sure to subscribe for everyday NFL goodness.

Without question however, Wilson is the front-runner for MVP one-eighth of the way through the season.
Here are my MVP rankings right now: 1. Wilson, 2. (Dak Prescott and Calvin Ridley are honorable discusses at this time.).
Choices.
My choices kid has grown from 11-5 to 24-8 are a lovely Week 2. I took Gardner Minshew on Thursday night and the mustache let me down. On to Week 3.
Titans at Vikings.
Sunday, 1 p.m., CBS.
Carson Wentz is lucky that theres a Kirk Cousins in this league or else Wentz would be the worst beginning QB in the NFL through 2 weeks. Cousins is getting chosen apart, and Super Bowl-winning coach Gary Kubiak is having a hard time to dust the cobwebs off his playbook.
The pick: Titans.
49ers at Giants.
Sunday, 1 p.m., Fox.
Losing Saquon Barkley is huge for the Giants season-long potential customers, however any provided game you can play the slots with a running back. Devonta Freeman has actually plenty left in the tank, and the Giants have remained in both games theyve lost this year. Meanwhile, the 49ers are annihilated, and I do not think in Nick Mullens.
The pick: Giants.
Bears at Falcons.
Sunday, 1 p.m., Fox.
I bet on the Falcons in Week 1 and lost. I bet against the Falcons in Week 2 and ought to have lost. This team has been difficult to determine considering that in 2015. The Bears entire group has been more lucky than excellent this year, which luck needs to go out today.
The choice: Falcons.
Rams at Bills.
Sunday, 1 p.m., Fox.
Heres the genuine very first test for Josh Allen and the Bills. I liked the young QBs moxie in Week 2 against the Dolphins in a weird, postponed game. This is the most formidable opponent the Bills have actually dealt with, and Im excited to see Brian Dabolls high-potent passing attack.
The pick: Bills.
Football Team at Browns.
Sunday, 1 p.m., Fox.
You do not know how badly I want to select Washington here. I do not wish to overreact to how great Baker Mayfield looked in Week 2 against the Bengals, due to the fact that Im uncertain thats a sustainable requirement through the season. I also cant neglect how excellent Mayfield looked at QB, and thats why Im taking the Browns.
The pick: Browns.
The rest:.
Patriots over Raiders.
Eagles over Bengals.
Texans over Steelers.
Colts over Jets.
Chargers over Panthers.
Cardinals over Lions.
Buccaneers over Broncos.
Seahawks over Cowboys.
Packers over Saints.
Ravens over Chiefs.

What everyone is waiting on– and what Slane calls the “holy grail”– is mobile betting with a streaming component. Seeing a live game on your gadget while making legal bets on the very same platform will reveal full combination between the NFL and the sports gambling world, which will imply the actualization of those billions of dollars everybody is talking about.
” Theres simply going to be a great deal of concerns regarding who owns those rights for betting purposes,” Slane states. “Are networks going to combat that provided OTT (over-the-top) and cord-cutting concerns around that? I think there are legitimate and extremely sensible answers as to why that shouldnt be an issue, due to the fact that there are ways to do bet-and-watch and Im not going to cut my cable due to the fact that I go on FanDuels app and stream football. Which by the way you can go do that free of charge today on Twitter on Thursday night.
” There are complexities that have actually to be figured. You get into integrations and what are networks going to permit, what are leagues going to permit, saturation, responsibility around marketing and advertising. There are a great deal of concerns that we still require to resolve and thats why these agreement settlements, when it concerns sports wagering, are going to be really, very difficult.”.

Stability charges that sports leagues were when pursuing– which would have been the huge direct money-maker for leagues– have been struck down at almost every court theyve turned up in. Compulsory data requirements have actually acquired traction in some states, and operators appear ready to pay leagues for that.
The most direct cash the NFL can and likely will see whenever soon is through individual group collaborations like the one the New York Giants just struck with Draft Kings for gambling, esports and fantasy. Regards to the deal were not revealed, however theres no doubt that a person of the NFLs the majority of noticeable brands physically situated in New Jersey would get a top-of-the-market deal.
Once teams are permitted to have books inside their stadiums, theyll have the ability to get the incomes from wagers along with non-sports gaming like fruit machine. But still, we are years– perhaps decades– away from that becoming widespread across all 32 teams.

The Bears entire group has actually been more lucky than good this year, and that luck needs to run out this week.

The income from those bets is usually about 5% for the home. And even though gambling profits are now composed into the NFLs CBA, the league will not see a dollar of that directly.

Now only 6 states have complete mobile betting with 5 others having partial betting. Even in states with legalized sports gaming, mobile betting is far from a certainty.
So the long and short of it is, yes, gambling incomes are being available in and theyll stream in for many years to come. However the real cash from betting? Were probably a couple of years, rather of a couple of years, away from that.
Leaving cash on the plate?
Bears RB Tarik Cohen raised my eyebrow today when he told ace beat author Jason Lieser of the Chicago Sun-Times that he didnt squeeze all he might out of his three-year, $17.25 million extension.

From one viewpoint, its a good thing to say. Football is the ultimate team sport, and Cohen wants to provide as though he played nice with management to assist his team get back to the playoffs in any method on and off the field. But 1) Im not exactly sure thats actually real and 2) He should not need to take this stance.
Rosenhaus got more than $12 countless that extension guaranteed for Cohen. Hes an excellent gamer deserving of his deal, however Im having a hard time to see where he might have gotten any more money without quiting some warranties or adding a year to his deal.
The Rams have apparently paid everybody in the past month but have just two gamers (Jared Goff and Aaron Donald) counting more than $10 million versus this years cap. And simply about every year the Saints make a mockery of the leagues “hard cap.”.

According to the AGA, 33.2 million Americans prepare to wager on video games this year. The brief and long of it is, yes, betting incomes are coming in and theyll stream in for years to come. The Rams have apparently paid everyone in the past month but have only two gamers (Jared Goff and Aaron Donald) counting more than $10 million versus this years cap. And just about every year the Saints make a mockery of the leagues “tough cap.”.

Given that the May 2018 Supreme Court choice opened the floodgates on legalized sports wagering in America, I have heard from every corner of the NFL world that the league would instantly and quickly profit of this multibillion-dollar industry. It has actually been a refrain my media coworkers have actually repeated throughout the years, and the cash from potential gambling revenues was added to the cumulative bargaining arrangement that was ratified in March.
There are new profits streams the league and its member clubs will take pleasure in for years to come that had actually formerly been dammed. However upon further examination, it appears the NFL is still a long way from swimming in billions of dollars from sports video gaming.
” Were at the table ready to scratch the surface,” discusses Sara Slane, founder of Slane Advisory Group, who has actually worked with several professional sports leagues because leaving her SVP position at the American Gaming Association (AGA) in 2015.
” The multibillion-dollar opportunity is not going to happen overnight. Youve got to have more states that are offered to take bets. And while were relocating that direction, were not there yet.”

Theyre going to require to pony up about $18 to 19 million per year on a three-year extension if the Bears desire to extend Robinson. They can do it if they wish to since thats how this game works, and Cohen should not feel any need to state he took less or, even worse, really take less.
MVP rankings.
I want to thank my fellow “That Other Pregame Show” co-host Adam Schein for his “absolutely brilliant” handle the Russell Wilson MVP talk.
See the clip listed below and youll see what Im talking about. Examine out what Schein had to state.

Betting profits have recently been propped up as some sort of salve for the profits deficits the league will suffer in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 income cap has a flooring of $175 million after being $198.2 million this year, and whatever direct gambling profits are gotten this year wont contribute to next years cap as much as theyll make up for the losses already sustained.
A study from 2018 forecasted the direct revenue from betting would ultimately be $573 million, which is a great $18 million-per-team bump in the wage cap but still far from the a number of billion dollars it has actually been trumpeted as.
The real major source comes from indirect income. That exact same study predicted indirect revenue counting for $1.75 billion, making for a total of $2.3 billion in total revenue for the NFL as sports betting is legislated.