Now Called the Win City
Two decades ago, Las Vegas tried to buy a commercial slot during the 2003 Super Bowl to promote tourism to the city. But the NFL stepped in, citing a contract that allowed it to reject any ad related to sports betting—even though the spot didn’t include any overt references to gambling.
How times have changed. Sunday’s Super Bowl LVIII broadcast will feature three commercials promoting sportsbooks, and the game will be played at Allegiant Stadium, walking distance from the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip.
It’s just the latest victory in the city’s unlikely rise from sports betting capital to sports capital period. Over the last six and a half years, Las Vegas has built on its long association with pro boxing—it bills itself as the Fight Capital of the World—and as the home to UFC by adding the NHL’s Golden Knights, the NFL’s Raiders and the WNBA’s Aces, plus a Formula 1 race, the 2022 NFL draft and the 2022 and 2023 Pro Bowls. Meanwhile, MLB’s A’s are slated to make the move from Oakland, and the NBA—which held its 2007 All-Star Game and 2023 In-Season Tournament final in Sin City and has played summer league games there since 2004—has also touted Las Vegas as a potential expansion-team market.
“You’ve really become Sports Town USA,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told a Las Vegas crowd in December. “That vision was clear. We wanted to be a part of it.”
