2023 XFL FAQs - Questions About The New XFL Football League
With the XFL returning to the field in 2023, there are a lot of questions about the league and what makes it different. Fortunately, we’ve learned the XFL playbook and have all the answers. Whether you’re just a curious fan or are interested in XFL betting, our XFL FAQs should help you run your routes accordingly.
XFL Betting FAQs
Yes! You can legally wager on XFL football at any top-rated online sports betting site like those featured here. XFL betting is currently pretty brisk, and as the inaugural season presses on, offshore sportsbooks are going to offer more and more betting lines for eager fans and gamblers.
While some US residents have access to domestically licensed local betting venues, the majority of American football fans have to wager with overseas sportsbooks to stay in compliance with US sports betting laws.
Note: Two states – Washington and Connecticut – currently have laws on their books barring all online gambling, including sports betting. However, these laws are historically unenforced, and all the best betting sites will accept WA and CT members (though you join and play at your own risk). Additionally, New Jersey residents cannot currently sign up and bet on the XFL at any reputable offshore book, though this is not technically a legal restriction and could change in the future.
As noted, several states now have legal domestic XFL betting options. These include the following:
- Arkansas
- Delaware
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Mississippi
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- West Virginia
You will be able to find the best XFL odds at offshore sportsbooks, and this is true for several reasons.
First, offshore books have less overhead than domestic venues, meaning that books won’t bake in as much vigorish to their spreads, totals, and props. Secondly, since online books accept bettors from all across the US, you are unlikely to find any significant “hometown” skews on teams from or near your geographic area. Finally, offshore books typically have more props to choose from in general, and they also tend to offer more XFL live betting options.
While we recommend trying out local books for the experience, most of the time, you’re going to get better values and greater convenience wagering on the XFL at offshore betting sites. As one final point, domestic US books don’t offer valuable deposit bonuses and rewards programs, which means legal offshore sites will almost always give you more bang for your buck.
That’s a tough call at this early juncture, as all the best sportsbooks (i.e. Bovada, MyBookie, Xbet, etc.) tend to post the same betting types. That said, each book posts slightly different lines on every XFL game, so you’re encouraged to sign up at several to shop lines for the best value each weekend.
While all the top sites offer tons of deposit options from credit cards and bank wires to courier checks and money orders, our favorite deposit option is Bitcoin (BTC) or any other supported cryptocurrency.
BTC and other cryptos allow you to make near-instant deposits, carry some of the highest deposit limits, have the best deposit bonus offers, and have no added transfer fees of any kind.
You can get the best, fastest payouts on your winning XFL bets by using Bitcoin or a supported altcoin (Litecoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, etc.). Crypto is the only way to get same-day payouts from legal offshore betting sites, and there are never any fees for claiming your winnings using these virtual currencies. The sole caveat is that in order to withdraw in crypto, you must first deposit using the same crypto.
All the best online XFL sportsbooks merely require their members to be 18 and older. That said, in the few states that have legal age minimums for sports betting on their books, you’ll want to defer to those. Thus, if your state mandates that sports betting can only be enjoyed by those 21 and up, you’ll want to wait before placing any football wagers. Otherwise, all the best sportsbooks are available to bettors aged 18+.
About The New XFL
XFL football is a new spring Football league positioning itself as a complement to – rather than a competitor of – the NFL. The XFL football league is the sequel to the 2001 league of the same name, though this iteration is a far more serious endeavor, utilizing many forward-thinking rules that the NFL has long been considering. In this way, the league is a test bed for the NFL, though there is no official partnership between the two entities.
Nothing. Literally.
While most fans assume that “XFL” stands for “Xtreme Football League,” that trademark is owned by a different (now-defunct) entity, and the “X” has never actually been defined. Frankly, we don’t even know if the “FL” stands for “Football League,” and the mystery may never be solved.
For bettors, it’s safe to say that the X may as well stand for “Xtra,” given that we’ve finally got American football betting lines in the springtime!
The XFL is owned by "the rock," Dwayne Johnson, his ex-wife Dany Garcia, and Redbird Capital. All XFL teams are owned by the league as well.
It was original owned and conceived of by the WWE’s Vince McMahon, though it was not associated with the WWE brand in any official or financial capacity.
XFL sponsors are lining up to get behind the nascent football league, with bigshots Gatorade and Anheuser-Busch (A-B InBev) getting in on the ground floor. Other sponsorship deals are forthcoming, and you can expect top-tier players to sign local and regional sponsorships of their own in the future.
Yes. The XFL will return to give pro football in the spring another go on February 18, 2023
Yes! Even better, there are several channels that the XFL is on for its inaugural 2020 season. You can catch XFL action on the following networks: ABC, ESPN, ESPN 2, FOX, FS1, and FS2. ESPN will be airing the XFL championship in late April.
XFL Team FAQs
There are currently eight (8) XFL teams, most of which are in areas with NFL presences. The league will almost certainly grow in the near future if it is even remotely successful, but for the next few seasons, it will probably be limited to the original eight teams.
The 2020 XFL teams are as follows:
Eastern Conference:
- DC Defenders – Washington DC, Audi Field
- New York Guardians – East Rutherford, NJ, MetLife Stadium
- Louis BattleHawks – St. Louis, MO, The Dome at America’s Center
- Tampa Bay Vipers – Tampa, FL, Raymond James Stadium
Western Conference
- Dallas Renegades – Arlington, TX, Globe Life Park in Arlington
- Houston Roughnecks – Houston, TX, TDECU Stadium
- Los Angeles Wildcats – Carson, CA, Dignity Health Sports Park
- Seattle Dragons – Seattle, WA, CenturyLink Field
The XFL’s “Team 9” is a club based in Arlington, TX, sharing facilities with the Dallas Renegades. This team is made up of 52 players and is considered a sort of practice or “reserve” team that houses talent not quite ready for primetime. The league advises its clubs to select injury and suspension replacements from Team 9, though the teams are not obligated to do so.
Right now, there are no planned XFL expansion teams, though if the league finds success in the first several years, the overarching aspirations of making a legitimate spring football league virtually mandate the fielding of more teams. Hopefully, these teams will play in markets that have large football fan bases but no immediate professional representation.
XFL Player FAQs
There are 52 players on every XFL team, which is significantly more than the 38 players that made up the original XFL squads in 2001. Active NFL rosters have 53 players, making the XFL team size comparable, though only 46 players are active on any given Saturday and Sunday.
The exact breakdown of what XFL players will make in terms of salaries has yet to be disclosed by the league, though the average XFL salary is reported to be around $55,000. Quarterbacks will earn about twice that, though they can make up to $495,000 if they meet every performance threshold (which is extremely unlikely).
Other skill positions (running back, wide receiver, etc.) will fall somewhere in between, depending on the player and their various bonus thresholds. Active XFL players also get health and roster bonuses each week of the season, and XFL head coaches can make up to $500,000 annually.
After the first XFL folded in 2001, several players went on to see success in the NFL. Rod Smart (aka “He Hate Me”) and Yo Murphy both saw lots of playing time in the NFL, with each making it to a Super Bowl, though their respective teams lost.
Tommy Maddox – who won the XFL MVP and the XFL Championship, went on to play many seasons for the Pittsburgh Steelers, winning a Super Bowl there as Ben Roethlisberger’s backup.
Naturally, that history is motivating every 2020 XFL player to perform well in the league, as the NFL definitely has its eye on the new talent pool.
Yes! A large number of new XFL players are made up of former NFL players. While the list is too long to include here in its entirety, a few notable XFL players who spent time in the NFL are Landry Jones, Cardale Jones, Matt McGloin, Max McCaffrey, Christine Michael, Trent Richardson, Tyree Jackson, Sammie Coates, Roberto Aguayo, Andre Williams, Ryan Broyles, and many more.
The first time around, two notable NFL players, Bobby Singh and Ron Carpenter, joined the XFL towards the ends of their careers. Along with Tommy Maddox, these athletes have the distinctions of being the only players to ever win an XFL Championship and a Super Bowl title.
Almost certainly, though there are no betting lines just yet. However, once the 2020 XFL season nears its completion, you can bet there will be odds at every major betting site about whether or not the league’s standout players will advance to the NFL in 2021.
While the XFL does not consider itself to be a development league for the NFL, its players are all on single-year contracts, and the best of the bunch will definitely be interested in making the leap to the big leagues.
XFL Season FAQs
The XFL season will begin on February 18, 2023, and will feature a regular season that will run for 10 weeks assuming it operates the same way it did in 2020.
Right now, each XFL team plays a 10-game regular season, playing each conference foe twice (6 total games) and each team in the opposing conference once (4 total games). The top four teams make the playoffs, with the winners of the Eastern Final and the Western Final meeting in the XFL title game.
The XFL regular season is 10 weeks in length, and the playoffs last two weeks. The addition of more teams down the road would not necessarily lead to a longer season (albeit football bettors might prefer it to), though it would probably extend the playoff timeframe by another week or so.
There are no bye weeks in the current XFL season format, and it is unlikely that the league – predicated on speed and increased pacing – would add bye weeks until significantly more teams populate the Eastern and Western conferences. Additionally, there is no time off between the regular season and the XFL postseason, bringing the total XFL experience to exactly 12 weeks (three months) in duration.
The 2023 XFL Championship game's date is expected to be on May 7th.
XFL Miscellany: Zero FAQs Given
The next XFL Draft will occur in November of 2022.
There are a couple of reasons for the initial XFL failure in 2001. First and foremost, the issue was one of marketing and message. Fans thought that the new football league, aligned then with Vince McMahon’s WWE, would be some sort of over-the-top football-wrestling hybrid rather than the reasonably standard football experience it turned out to offer.
Another big reason for its failure was that the league was co-owned by the WWE and its sole broadcast partner, NBC. When NBC saw the XFL suffer from worse-than-expected ratings, the company quickly pulled the plug, as if canceling a reality TV show.
This time around, the league has marketed itself as a bona fide traditional football product, and McMahon’s Alpha Entertainment has sole ownership, with several different broadcast partners so its eggs aren’t all in one basket.
We can’t be 100% certain, but the new XFL seems poised for a long run to the endzone in 2020 and beyond. Messaging has been on-point, the talent pool is quite strong, and McMahon has pledged a minimum of half a billion dollars to keep the league afloat during the inevitable first-season hardships and early hurdles that any nascent sports league is sure to suffer.
It will be several years before the XFL is viewed by the public as a truly legitimate sports league, and Alpha Entertainment seems prepared for this.
While the XFL is a professional league that complements the NFL, the roadmap for existing players is the same as it ever was. In order to get serious consideration in the XFL, you will have to learn the game in high school and – most probably – in college, though the league doesn’t have the same “three years removed from high school” restriction that the NFL has for its talent pool.
It is unlikely that anyone without at least high-level high school football experience will have a real shot in the XFL, but the league is positioned to be a godsend for those who don’t quite make the NFL cut in their first years of eligibility and for gifted high school players who cannot get onto a major college team.
In the 2001 XFL iteration, cheerleaders – in all their feminine glory – were to be a major focal point of the league, much in the same way that professional wrestling’s ring girls dominate the stage in between the action. However, after a series of sexually charged promos and ads, there was a significant backlash.
Then, the infamous XFL shower video – and this halftime stunt during Week 6 – sealed the deal on the distaste, and it was a black eye that certainly didn’t help the league in its efforts to be taken seriously. While the new XFL has cheerleaders, they are not going to be the same sort of focal point this time around.