Football Meets Blackjack: Best Games for Sports Fans
Football and blackjack are a match made in heaven—like ice-cold milk and warm apple pie. These two beloved pastimes of many Americans provide countless thrills on their own. Combine them, and you have a mash-up destined to be a crowd-pleaser.
Football-themed blackjack games are popular but still need work © EGaming Imagery, Pixabay
Top Football-Themed Blackjack Games
So, while the concept of football and blackjack sounds great together, how does it work in practice? What does a football-themed blackjack game even look like, and how do you play? Are there touchdowns instead of blackjacks?
Do you get sacked instead of bust? Well, let’s take a look at the most popular football-themed blackjack games from around the internet to try and understand this perfect pairing.
We are excited to expand our partnership with the Pittsburgh Steelers through the new live dealer blackjack game. Our Pennsylvania customers are highly engaged with both our casino and sportsbook products and deserve a best-in-class experience. Through this game, we’re able to provide them with a new, interactive way to play with Unibet,” – Manuel Stan, SVP Kindred US, PR Newswire
Unibet and the Pittsburg Steelers launched one of the first live dealer blackjack games that incorporated football in 2021. They had launched one of the first NFL slot machines deals with the Philadelphia Eagles earlier that year and came up with the idea of a blackjack game with Steelers color themes and branding.
BetMGM’s Take on Football-Themed Blackjack
BetMGM would soon follow their lead, launching sponsorships not only with the Steelers but with the New York Jets and the Detroit Lions. Their live dealer partner Evolution would then design games showcasing 3D animations of the respective football fields, making it seem like you were playing in a lounge overlooking, say, Detroit’s Ford Field or the Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburg.
These games also feature game clips and other team animations on the screen behind the blackjack table. In recent years, BetMGM has pioneered the use of former NFL stars playing live blackjack in one of Evolution’s studios to kick off the NFL season.
For example, they used former Jets stars Wayne Chrebet and Tony Richardson playing on a live dealer game in Evolution’s studio in Atlantic City to kick off the 2024 NFL season in August.
Fans could talk, play blackjack, and generally get a chance to hang out with these two legends of the game, all while playing New York Jets Blackjack on BetMGM’s New Jersey site. And hundreds showed up to do so.
As Live Dealer Blackjack games go, these are pretty good games with a healthy Return-to-player percentage. Take the Detroit Lions’ blackjack game, which has an RTP of 99.29% when played with the correct basic strategy.
It also offers both the 21+3 bet and the Any Pair side bet, all while keeping you feeling like you’re hanging out at Ford Field. They also offer exclusive tie-ins through the Detroit Lion’s Lions Perks program.
With Steelers Blackjack Pro, BetMGM has run sweepstakes that offered players a chance to win club level VIP season tickets and hospitality tent passes for the upcoming year but for the next decade.
Appropriately called the Decade of Black and Gold giveaway, this was a very popular event that has led to it being offered almost every year since the beginning of the BetMGM/Steelers partnership. BetMGM Online Casino has also rolled out BetMGM Blackjack and BetMGM Gold. Both games give players a sense of being at Heinz Field in the middle of the action. Their new take on Steeler’s first-person blackjack can be found on BetMGM’s Pennsylvania app.
DraftKings Take on Football-Themed Blackjack Games
While BetMGM’ and Live Evolution’s branding and use of both football stadium imagery and on-screen action do make for a quaint backdrop and tie the two past times together on the surface, what about an online blackjack game with actual football rules.
DraftKings Touchdown Blackjack does precisely that. First, you need to pick the team you wish to play as. Then, just as in football, you drive down the field as you win. Lose or push, and you stay in the same spot.
If the dealer gets a blackjack, you can even lose yardage as if sacked. But splitting and doubling are akin to throwing the long bomb and will get you down the field in a hurry. Once you are in the endzone, the crowd goes wild, and there is even a flyover of jets. Then, we set up the extra point attempt, and the game begins again.
DraftKings Football Blackjack is a 0.25-cent side bet that could win you over $2.5 million. The game itself is a bit unremarkable. It’s blackjack played on a football-themed background, but with millions of dollars to be won on a 0.25-cent bet, we reckon it doesn’t need much more excitement.
Other NFL Themed Blackjack Games
Caesars Football Blackjack is a popular version, but again this is mostly just regular blackjack being played on an NFL logo table. There is nothing wrong with that, of course. Maybe playing on a Saints-themed table would prove lucky, but I’d probably avoid the Bills.
FanDuel Football Blackjack is basically the same; it’s just another branding opportunity, like most of the other football-themed blackjack games we came across.
We think DraftKings may be moving on to something with their Touchdown Blackjack. If that could somehow be combined with Evolution’s take on in-stadium action, then we might really see a blackjack game that truly combines the excitement of football with the thrill of blackjack. Maybe next year will be our year.
