In the last year, the NIL collectives associated with the Iowa Hawkeyes and Iowa State Cycles have received infusions of $500,000 and $300,00, respectively, from Elite Casino Resorts, a Midwest regional gaming operator.
The local aspect of this partnership was especially attractive to Brent Blum, executive director of the ISU collective: “Elite Casino Resorts is a company run by Iowans that is truly committed to the state of Iowa with their wide-ranging support and they certainly align with our continued aspirations of using NIL for good.”
Iowa is one of the few states allowing a sports casino to partner with a school’s student-athletes and associated entities. Most other states have laws keeping casinos separate from the student-athletes at universities within their state. You can see that on page 6 of the Arkansas Student-Athlete Publicity Rights Act here:
Representatives of the state’s largest sports casino in terms of market share, Saracen Casino Resort, haven’t been shy about pointing this out:
It appears there might have been some recent discussion among Arkansas legislators and public officials to allow Bet Saracen a way to work with Arkansas Edge, the Razorbacks’ NIL collective, based on some very interesting chatter on “X” Friday night.
The fireworks started when Carlton Saffa, the chief market officer of the Pine Bluff-based Saracen Casino, posted that “Someone from UAF is reporting to state officials they don’t need any [NIL] money.”
In another Tweet, Saffa posted “Who and why would someone resort to telling policymakers that the UA doesn’t need NIL money? This has been kept under wraps for a month. But today’s sabotage of the Hogs took me over the edge.”
Questions about NIL Obstruction in Arkansas
Who exactly initiated this supposed “sabotage” is unclear, although Saffa insinuated he’d heard about it from a UA trustee.
What prompted Saffra and his Saracen colleague, Morgan Flanagan, to go public appears to be a product they had been working on that will now be scrapped with Saracen staying on the NIL sidelines.
“Razorback fans deserve to know the truth,” Saffa posted. “Saracen has built a product we could have live for football season that would generate program-changing sums of money for NIL. I worked in politics and have been respectful and quiet. But today’s lies about NIL money needs are too much.”
The product was a 50/50 raffle where half of the pot is split between the winner (not a college student-athlete) and a “chosen charity” which in this case could be Arkansas Edge:
“I spend more time with lawyers than I do my family,” Saffa explained. “Technically it’s not our money. Half the pot to the winner of the drawing. Half to the NIL collective. We make nothing. Never even hits our balance sheet.”
Arkansas’ NIL collective isn’t exactly raking in the cash. Arkansas Edge launched a drive to have 5,000 members in March and by the time executive director Chris Bauer stepped down last month, the number of members was 782.
“I know the UA wants and needs the money,” Saffa continued in another post. “The question is who is telling the [Arkansas] Capitol they don’t need it. And why? UA Athletic Dept and UA System have been supportive. Someone is sabotaging the NIL play.”
Then, this haymaker, replete with a “Made in America” vibe that Sam Walton himself would have been proud of:
This is, to say the least, a developing story. Stay tuned to BoAS for more.
For now, though, just know that a few Arkansas football fans think it would be a bad idea to allow a sports casino to partner with the Razorbacks’ NIL collective:
Even in Iowa, where this kind of thing is happening, concerns remain.
Public universities “have an obligation to safeguard the community and if you’re promoting, even if you’re not literally promoting, but being in a partnership with a casino, it raises a host of questions related to the potential negative impacts of gambling sponsorship advertisements,” Dr. Lisa Kihl, an associate professor of sport management at Minnesota, told On3.
Especially, she added, “where you have the most vulnerable adults or youth that have, what, two or three times higher incidence of gambling problems.”
“It’s an interesting partnership to be involved in knowing that colleges are ripe with individuals that have potentially high levels of gambling on sports and potential for gambling problems.”
Perhaps, howecer, a sponsorship like this won’t significantly affect student-athletes and sports-loving college students who are likely inundated with gambling ads on the social media platforms they use and websites they read anyway. In this line of thinking, the cat’s already out of the bag. A sports casino sponsorship like this would be as likely to tip someone over into a pathology as the beer now sold at Razorback Reynolds Stadium would create new alcoholics.
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More on NIL and Arkansas football here:
