After the NFL "threatened to cancel its business" with Yahoo, the Internet company said that "it's eliminating ads for sports wagering services in areas where" the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB supply content, according to Newman & Eichelberger of BLOOMBERG NEWS. Yahoo Dir of Production Tonya Antonucci: "Gaming-related ads previously running on pages with NFL-supplied content and content from other leagues will now appear on other areas of our network." Newman & Eichelberger cited execs at Yahoo's competitors as saying that Web sites "could charge" $2-4M per month for sports gambling advertising. U.K.-based online bookmaker Sportingbet.com Marketing Manager David Grouse said the company was "surprised we could get on a site like" Yahoo (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 12/14). The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Mylene Mangalindan notes Yahoo "characterized" the online wagering ads as a "trial marketing program." Analysts say that Yahoo "turned to these gambling establishments as a source of new ad revenue at a time when it is being hurt by a slowdown in advertising by dot-coms." Antonucci said that the "decision wouldn't affect" Yahoo's ad revenue "because the company still will run the ads" on other parts of the site (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 12/15). In St. Petersburg, Greg Auman writes that the gambling ads were removed from the NFL page Thursday, but, "Sure enough, you didn't have to look far to find those gambling ads, which are in rotation atop Yahoo's NBA, NHL and baseball pages" (ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, 12/15).
