Average NFL player salary

Average NFL salaries and US legal sports betting revenue, both climbing fast through the 2018-2023 window. The athlete and the bettor, two parts of the same broadcast-and-betting machinery, scaling together. The relationship is, this once, almost causal.

Average NFL salaries grew from about 2.7 million dollars in 2018 to over 3 million by 2023 as the salary cap rose and broadcast-rights revenue compounded. US legal sports betting revenue grew from a few hundred million dollars in 2018 to over 11 billion by 2023 after the Supreme Court's 2018 PASPA ruling opened the market and most states legalised betting. Both lines reflect the same broadcast-and-betting machinery: more betting revenue funds higher broadcast deals, which fund higher salaries. Two parts of the same flywheel.

Sometimes correlation is one industry funding another. The contract and the wager, on the same broadcast invoice.