Inside the $14 billion business of football: Announcing Yahoo Finance's new podcast

Photo illustration by Martin Goetz

As another NFL season kicks off, the king of American sports leagues is dealing with an increasing amount of negative noise: rising concerns over head injuries; more players protesting during the national anthem; and continued off-the-field disciplinary issues.

But it’s difficult to make the case that American football is going away any time soon. The NFL is looking at $14 billion in estimated revenue this year. The league not only eclipses its NBA, MLB, and NHL peers in financial size, it also dominates the news cycle all year round, in-season or out.

And that’s why Yahoo Finance is launching a new Sportsbook podcast series, and focusing the podcast’s first “season” on the business of football.

We began our Sportsbook video series back in April 2016. We’ve hosted pro athlete guests like golfer Jim Furyk, pitchers Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom, NFL linebacker Luke Kuechly, lacrosse star Paul Rabil, former US women’s national soccer team member Kate Deines, Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, and boxing gym entrepreneur George Foreman III. We’ve also hosted the CEOs of companies including DraftKings, FanDuel, Formula E, and Tough Mudder.

Now we’re expanding the Sportsbook franchise with a podcast series.

Each week, I will dive into one part of the NFL’s booming business, and host a guest to expand on the theme. We’ll look at the breathless media coverage of the NFL, the corporate sponsors who spend big to get in front of fans, the new stadium boom, the power of the team owners, and other hot topics in football financing. Our guests include CEOs, academics, authors, and sports marketing experts. We’ll usually shoot a video interview with them as well.

Our premiere episode, with special guest Erika Nardini, CEO of Barstool Sports, is below. New episodes come out every Thursday morning, the start of a new NFL week.

You can find Sportsbook via Apple, Acast, Google, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Daniel Roberts is the sports business writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @readDanwrite.

Sportsbook is our ongoing sports business video and podcast series.

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