NFL Caps Sportsbook Commercials for Super Bowl LX

On paper, the NFL limiting sports betting commercials during the Super Bowl sounds like a meaningful change. In practice, it mostly formalizes something that has already been happening for years.

For Super Bowl LX between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, the league will allow a maximum of six sportsbook commercials from pregame coverage through the final whistle. That figure applies to the entire broadcast, not to individual quarters, and the NFL won’t say which betting companies buy those slots or where the ads will appear.

The number itself isn’t new. What’s new is the league being clear about it.

The Super Bowl has always lived in a different category from the rest of the NFL calendar. While betting ads are common during regular-season games and even the playoffs, the league has historically treated its championship broadcast with more restraint, largely because of who’s watching. The Super Bowl isn’t just a football audience. It’s everyone.

Super Bowl Advertising Rules

One reason this policy hasn’t changed much in practice is simple economics. A 30-second Super Bowl commercial now costs around $8 million, and that’s before production, talent, or marketing spend are factored in. For sportsbooks, that’s a massive investment for a single spot, especially when the same money can buy weeks of advertising across other sports and platforms.

That reality has kept betting ads to a minimum on Super Bowl Sunday. The past two Super Bowls each featured commercials from just two betting operators. Even without a formal cap, sportsbook advertising has remained a small slice of the overall ad lineup.

There’s also been confusion around claims that betting ads are limited to a fixed percentage of total Super Bowl commercials. That idea doesn’t come from an NFL rule. The six-ad maximum is the only clear rule the league has confirmed, and even that number has never been tested.

In other words, the league isn’t reacting to a flood of betting commercials with its announcement.

Betting Ads and the Super Bowl

That perception issue exists because gambling marketing shows up in places viewers don’t always think about as advertising. Studies tracking major sports broadcasts have found that betting-related messaging appears constantly, even when commercials aren’t running.

Research examining NHL and NBA championship series identified thousands of gambling references across a small sample of broadcasts. In hockey, the average viewer sees multiple references per minute, driven largely by rink-side boards, digital signage, and other in-arena visuals. NBA broadcasts feature fewer on-screen references, a difference researchers have tied in part to platform policies and distribution choices.

These integrations matter because they’re always there. Commercials come and go, but signage, graphics, and jersey patches form the background of the entire broadcast. Compared to that kind of exposure, six Super Bowl commercials represent a relatively small piece of the overall picture.

Still, the Super Bowl is symbolic. It’s where advertising categories are noticed, counted, and debated.

That’s why gambling harm advocates continue to focus on the event, which makes sense. Concerns tend to center on how betting is framed, especially when ads feature celebrities or present wagering as risk-free entertainment. Survey data suggests those endorsements may not be as influential as feared, but the concern hasn’t gone away.

Looked at this way, the NFL isn’t trying to shut anything down. It’s managing exposure. Betting is still part of the league’s business, but on the Super Bowl stage, the NFL wants tighter control over how front-and-center that connection appears.

Super Bowl LX won’t look much different because of this rule. The difference is that the league is now saying out loud what it has quietly enforced all along.

#SuperBowlLX Opening Lines

NE +4.5
SEA -4.5
Total: 45.5

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— Sportsbook Advisor (@bookieadvisor) January 26, 2026