Leagues Are Doing Just Fine at Regulating Sports Betting Without Politicians' Help
Plus: Is MLS European or American, and why the NFL needs sky judges
Hello and welcome to another edition of Free Agent! Find your mission in life this week, even if it's a narrow one.
We've got a great newsletter today, starting with some sports betting news. Then we'll move on to a huge debate and change in Major League Soccer (MLS) and close with NFL referees absolutely botching two easily fixable calls on Sunday.
Don't miss sports coverage from Jason Russell and Reason.
Locker Room Links
- The Canadian Football League is changing its field dimensions and fans aren't happy. Maybe the league is ready to dip its toes back into American markets? (An attempted American invasion in the 1990s didn't go too well.)
- "Why NBC Sports Network Is Back From the Dead"
- Denver's "privately funded" women's soccer stadium is getting more and more costly for the city government.
- President Donald Trump's granddaughter Kai got a sponsor's invite to play in an LPGA tournament. She came last, but the 18-year-old is still better at golf than you are.
- Could the Air Force men's basketball team go winless this season?
- Elsewhere in Reason: "The Trump Administration Finally Admits That Tariffs Raise Prices"
- If I were still in marathon-running shape, some version of this would be very tempting.
View this post on Instagram
Why Regulate?
The sports betting industry is regulating itself. Lawmakers don't need to.
The NFL sent a memo to teams last week on sports betting. "We have actively engaged with both state lawmakers and regulators, as well as with our sports betting partners, to limit—and where possible prohibited [sic] altogether—prop bets in the NFL," the memo reads. It doesn't seem to be calling for a ban on all football-related prop bets, but it does list four categories it seeks to prohibit: "inherently objectionable" (like betting on injuries), anything officiating-related, "determinable by one person in one play" (like betting on a quarterback's first pass to be incomplete), and "predetermined" (like whether the first play will be a run or a pass).
For the most part, the popular sports betting apps weren't taking bets on those things anyway. Notably absent from that list are popular prop bets such as anytime touchdown scorer, over-under on a quarterback's completions, or over-under on a running back's yardage—in theory, a player could still fake an injury, pull himself out of a game early, and help people cash in on their under prop bets, like what Terry Rozier allegedly did in the NBA.
The NFL memo came a few days after the MLB, in conjunction with DraftKings and FanDuel, limited pitch bets to $200 and banned them from parlay bets. Those limits were a response to the (alleged) betting scandal involving MLB pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz (which we covered last week).
Ideally, this is how the regulation of the sports betting industry should go. It's a great example of private actors (the leagues) in business with private companies (the sportsbooks) coming to an agreement on how things should be done. These approaches are catching the nuances of what works for both the leagues and for sportsbooks without the heavy-handed approaches of politicians who would use an axe to ban all prop bets instead of a scalpel to limit problematic bets.
The leagues and sportsbooks have a major financial interest in maintaining the integrity of the games, and in the public's trust in that integrity. The leagues also have sway with the sportsbooks, which know a significant portion of their profits relies on cooperation with the leagues for data, advertising, and more.
So there's no need for politicians to get involved and no need for committee hearings or betting regulation legislation when there are bigger problems facing the states and the federal government. When sports leagues see a threat to their integrity and their bottom line, they take action.
Which Way, MLS?
Should the American soccer league have unique American characteristics or be more like the leagues in Europe and most of the rest of the world? That question has dogged MLS since its inception, and the debate has only gotten louder. Soon the league will see its biggest European shift yet, by moving to a fall-through-spring season schedule instead of early spring through late fall. The season currently runs from late February to mid-October, with playoffs from late October to early December. The new season schedule, starting with 2027–2028, will start in mid-July with the regular season ending in April and playoffs taking place in May. A winter break will run from mid-December to early February.
Slowly but surely, the league has gotten more and more European. Originally it didn't have draws, the clock counted down, and teams had Americanized names. But gone are the days of the Tampa Bay Mutiny—the 13 teams that have joined since 2012 all have FC, SC, or CF in their names, similar to most non-American soccer teams. The clock counts up to 90 minutes, and regular-season matches can end in draws. But the league is still American-style in size and format, with 30 teams vying for playoffs that determine who is the champion.
The league has grown but seems to have plateaued lately, even with Lionel Messi's presence since 2023. Other than two COVID-affected seasons, average attendance has been stuck between 21,000 and 24,000 fans per game since 2015 (although the addition of expansion teams has meant total attendance has gone up). Its decadelong deal to exclusively show all games on Apple TV will now end 3.5 years early with questionable returns. The dream of MLS usurping the best leagues in the world is a long way off if the teams can't even beat Mexican teams (with some exceptions).
Perhaps the big problem isn't whether to have an American or a European calendar, but another common trait of American sports leagues: the salary cap.
When American fans watch the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL, they know they're watching the best players on the best teams in the world in that sport. Even if Messi is on Inter Miami, the best players in the world are largely not filling out the 30 MLS rosters. Most of the best soccer leagues in the world don't have salary caps (some have various financial regulations but not as stringent as the MLS cap). MLS's salary cap is astonishingly low, coming in under $6 million per team for this season (up to three designated players don't count against the cap). The National Women's Soccer League seems poised to figure this out before MLS does.
Rearranging the MLS schedule without fixing its salary cap is a bit like rearranging the deck chairs on a Viking River Cruise—either way, a bunch of old people who are past their primes are the ones showing up.
Flagged
Two brutally awful pass interference flags on Sunday showcased the need for the NFL to have sky judges to help save referees from themselves.
First there was a call against the Dolphins, to the benefit of the Commanders, where the ball flew 6 feet over the receiver's head and he was barely touched by the defender.
Second was a more decisive call against the Lions, when cornerback Rock Ya-Sin (an A-plus name) was flagged late in the fourth quarter against the Eagles after the Lions thought they had a huge stop.
Cris Collinsworth: "Oh, come on! Come on! That is terrible! That is an absolutely terrible call that's going to decide this football game! If anything, it's an offensive push!"
Another brutal NFL pass interference call strikes. ????????????️ #NFL #SNF https://t.co/XYnF7DejvM pic.twitter.com/TRkNZ7kGJG
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 17, 2025
(Yes, I'm a Lions fan—no, that call wasn't why we lost the game, just look at Jared Goff's stat line.)
Replay officials in the stadium or in the league office in New York are already allowed to step in and provide assistance on some flags—but only for objective calls such as face mask, horse-collar tackles, and tripping. Other calls, such as pass interference, holding, etc., are more subjective and not reviewable—but the league should still let replay officials weigh in on these too. (They don't necessarily have to be challengeable, though I'd favor that too.)
These are cases where it should only take a replay official one view of a slow-motion replay to reverse the call on the field. That keeps the game moving quickly and improves officiating accuracy. If it takes more than two views or angles to make a call, then clearly the alleged officiating error isn't clear and obvious enough to overturn.
The league already has the infrastructure and rules procedures to make this happen. That they haven't done it already is a clear and obvious error that should be overturned for next season.
Replay of the Week
Ireland stayed alive in World Cup qualifying thanks to a last-minute goal to beat Hungary, and it was fantastic.
There's a clip of Troy Parrott's Republic of Ireland winner from RTE which won't get taken down for copyright.
The commentary is sensational. pic.twitter.com/4wqT5Z14Ti https://t.co/qrrSfpCL4U
— HLTCO (@HLTCO) November 16, 2025
See, sometimes my unserious recommendation for the "real" game of the week actually turns out well! That's all for this week. Enjoy watching the real game of the weekend, Virginia Tech against Miami in football (Saturday, noon Eastern, on ESPN).
