Watch and win: Redskins run prediction contest

An alternate native telecast of Washington Redskins preseason video games will characteristic a stay interactive prediction contest with money prizes, the most recent signal of the NFL’s methodical shift towards a extra accepting place on sports activities betting.

Beginning with Thursday’s preseason opener at Cleveland, NBC Sports activities Washington Plus will present the “Predict the Recreation” broadcast. The sport footage will probably be lined by graphics that includes stats correlated to the prediction contest, with propositions popping up on the backside of the display screen at various factors within the sport. The contestants who’ve probably the most right responses in every quarter will win $1,000.

The Redskins are the primary NFL franchise to create an alternate broadcast centered on a prediction contest. Washington additionally was the primary NFL staff to associate with a every day fantasy sports activities operator and the primary to place its staff marks on a scratch-off lottery ticket.

“We’re proud to be the primary NFL membership to do that and it follows a line of improvements that we have had alongside this area,” Redskins senior vice chairman Scott Shepherd instructed ESPN on Tuesday.

Members in “Predict the Recreation” may very well be requested as many as 80 questions on outcomes happening through the sport. For instance, “Will rookie quarterback Dwayne Haskins throw a landing move within the second quarter?” A chime will sound on the published, alerting contestants new query has hit the board.

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Damon Phillips, senior vice chairman and common supervisor for NBC Sports activities Washington, stated they’ve been discussing at what factors through the sport to pose the questions.

“Between collection? After a business break?” Phillips stated. “We will experiment to determine what the fitting rhythm is, and we’ll discover out lots within the first sport.”

Throughout the NBA season, NBC Sports activities Washington Plus supplied an analogous broadcast constructed round a prediction contest on choose Washington Wizards sport. These broadcasts included conventional betting propositions, together with money-line odds and over/beneath totals.

After discussions with the NFL workplace, the Redskins’ alternate broadcasts is not going to characteristic level spreads, odds or over/beneath totals.

Phillips stated the betting-centric alternate broadcasts on Wizards video games this previous season have been a hit.

“We have been in a position to create a brand new approach to interact with followers that we did not have final 12 months,” Phillips instructed ESPN. “There was extra time spent on our digital properties as the results of these broadcasts.”

In Might 2018, the U.S. Supreme Courtroom struck down a federal statute that had restricted regulated sports activities betting to primarily Nevada. For the reason that ruling, authorized sportsbooks have began working in 9 states exterior of Nevada: Arkansas, Delaware, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia. A number of further states are gearing as much as enter the bookmaking enterprise within the coming months.

Whereas the NBA and NHL have absolutely embraced the evolving sports activities betting panorama in america, the NFL stays probably the most cautious of the skilled sports activities leagues. Shepherd stated the alternate broadcast does not signify a primary step into sports activities betting for the league.

“But it surely’s actually one thing from a membership perspective and an innovation perspective, we wish to be on the forefront of rising tendencies and new alternatives which might be on the market,” Shepherd stated. “We wish to interact with our followers and actually start that dialog and start that general expertise as authorized sports activities betting is coming on-line. The NFL, from a authorized sports activities betting perspective, is taking a extra cautious and methodical strategy versus the opposite leagues which have absolutely opted in.”

The “Predict the Recreation” broadcast is taken into account a pilot. There are not any present plans to proceed it through the common season, however it hasn’t been dominated out, both, a spokesman for NBC Sports activities Washington instructed ESPN.