The NFL regular season kicks off on September 9th, but off the field the sport's economic winners are already being crowned.  The pro football business is booming, and the expectation is that the NFL will set new records for fan viewership during the 2010 season.  The regular season NFL TV audience enjoyed a 9% increase in 2009, and there are suggestions that they could experience a whopping 15% gain in viewership during the upcoming 2010 season. 

This is good news not only for the NFL, but for a variety of businesses that owe their success directly or indirectly to the fortunes of North America's most powerful sports league. 

The strong viewership numbers extend beyond the league's championship game to more mundane NFL events.  The 2010 NFL draft coverage on ESPN and NFL Network also set viewership records, with an estimated 23.3 million people tuning in to the first round.  The strong showing of the draft was also blamed for lower than average numbers for NBC's hit sitcoms '30 Rock' and 'The Office'.  More importantly from the networks' perspective, the NFL draft captured several highly coveted segments of the total TV audience including adults 18-49, adults 18-34 and all male demographics.  Even the much maligned Pro Bowl, annually criticized as the most irrelevant major sport all star game, saw a 40% increase in their TV audience from 2009 to 2010. 

Other industries are also expecting their NFL related business to boom this season, albeit in a more indirect fashion.  Betting on NFL is big business, and sportsbooks from Nevada to Costa Rica are expecting a banner year. 

Jack Thurman of Sports Betting World covers the sports wagering and bookmaking industries, and suggests that there's a "very strong" historical relationship between NFL viewership trends and betting on the games.  In Thurman's view, it'll be a busy fall for bookmakers:  "The league may not like it, but the NFL is synonymous with betting.  The more that fans are engaged with the NFL product, the more they'll be betting on games," explains Thurman.

With the NFL doing an effective job responding to changing trends in television viewer preferences, Sports Betting World expects the audience numbers to remain strong for years to come.