NCAA Announces Sports Betting Supporter Charlie Baker as New President

Charlie Baker will be the new president of the NCAA. He will finish his current term in January and focus on the organization in March 2023. Baker has openly supported legal sports betting for years and brought regulated betting to Massachusetts in August 2022. Mark Emmert, the previous president, opposed this because he thought it could have negative impacts on student-athletes.

Legal sports betting on college sports does not directly offer a payout to the NCAA. The NCAA could follow in the NFL's footsteps and create partnerships with the different commercial sportsbooks in US.

NCAA President Charlie Baker supports legal sports betting in the US. The NFL had an average viewership of 15.2 million during the 2017 season. From 2017 to 2022, the annual average from the NFL has increased.

There are currently over 30 states with legal sports betting. NFL viewership by year is declining. March Madness final in 2021 recorded a 14% decline in viewership with 16.9 million watching on CBS.