Why Las Vegas is sponsoring NFL football games in London

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority will sponsor the National Football League’s three American football games in London in October, hoping that the additional exposure will generate more visits from the city’s largest overseas market.

The two-year agreement signed with the NFL will expose football fans in Great Britain to the entertainment, sports and special attractions Las Vegas has to offer.

LVCVA officials did not immediately explain terms of its agreement with the NFL, including the cost.

Two airlines — British Airways and Virgin Atlantic — already offer non-stop service between London’s Heathrow International Airport and Harry Reid International Airport and on Thursday, a third carrier — Norse Atlantic — will begin non-stops to Las Vegas from London’s Gatwick International Airport.

“We are focused on growing that market,” LVCVA President and CEO Steve Hill said at Tuesday’s monthly board meeting.

“We peaked in the U.K. and Ireland in the 2017-2018, time frame, at about 800,000 visitors from that area to Las Vegas. Last year, we were at about 550,000.”

Hill said the emphasis on Great Britain via the NFL is somewhat of a departure for the LVCVA.

“Typically, we have spread our international dollars across a series of countries that are certainly Las Vegas fans, but we haven’t focused in a particular area like we are doing right now. So we’re going to do this for a couple of years and see if that actually changes the arc of the growth of visitation from a specific location.”

October games

The NFL has three games scheduled in successive weeks in October.

The New York Jets will play the Minnesota Vikings at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Oct. 6 with the Jacksonville Jaguars playing the Chicago Bears there on Oct. 13. On Oct. 20, the Jaguars will play the New England Patriots at Wembley Stadium.

Hill said football is the main driver of sporting events in Las Vegas as evidenced by last weekend’s Modelo Vegas Kickoff Classic at Allegiant Stadium pitting high-ranking Louisiana State University against the University of Southern California.

Hill said the college football kickoff game drew a record 63,969 fans to the stadium and a television audience of 9.2 million viewers on ABC’s platforms, which, with a peak of more than 11 million viewers, made it the largest audience for a college football opening weekend.

The broadcast was enhanced with snippets of Las Vegas attractions, including college marching bands parading through casinos and pep rallies across the city.

The NFL London sponsorship will enable Las Vegas to promote the city with advertising, signage and social media posts.

The 2023-24 London games drew more than 26 million United Kingdom viewers, 1.3 million social media followers from the U.K. and 3.7 million U.K. viewers for the Super Bowl game, which was played in Las Vegas.

In a separate sports item, the board unanimously approved a $300,000 sponsorship agreement with Salt Lake City-based Brooksee, an urban race production company, for the next two Las Vegas Marathon events, Nov. 3 and Nov. 2, 2025.

The course will be dramatically different from past years.

Instead of a nighttime run on the Strip, the upcoming Las Vegas Marathon will start at Red Rock Canyon and progress east through Downtown Summerlin and on Charleston Boulevard to downtown Las Vegas, finishing at the Fremont Street Experience.

This year’s event will include two other races, a half-marathon and a 7.02-mile race in tribute to Southern Nevada’s 702 area code.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.