Bettors in Las Vegas casinos will be able to place bets on the NFL draft for the first time this year.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board granted approval for betting on the draft this week. Bets on the draft have never been allowed in Nevada before, although some online sports books based overseas have offered NFL draft bets.
Bets on which player will go first overall or on any individual team’s selection will not be allowed, as it would be too easy for someone with inside information about a team’s plans to win. But Nevada sports books will offer prop bets.
Those bets will include how many quarterbacks are taken in the first round, whether more offensive or defensive players are taken in the first round, when the first kicker will be taken, the number of players taken from a particular college, which conference has the most players taken, the number of players taken at a certain position, and so on.
Nevada sports books have long made a huge portion of their proceeds from betting on NFL games, and now they’re looking to make money in the offseason as well.