The kicker has a drug habit. The quarterback is making a suspicious number of overseas call. The coach is having an extramarital affair that could be exploited by a blackmailer.
Another team's key player couldn't be replaced on short notice, were they to be removed from the board, in a deniable 'gang-related' incident in front of the nightclub they frequent.
The roster of a favored team could be boosted with secret financial incentives to candidates, funded off-the-books by new gambling and prostitution operations.
Nah.
These people don't like to share. They have to pay and/or payoff players, coaches, staff and so on.
But after that?
Yeah.. they're taking every nickel they can right down to the bottom line.
They're not letting anybody else in on that racket.
The Henkel-Sika-3M lab for sustainable adhesives (I'm just making that up, one doesn't exist) would have a different name and a whole lot less funding if it didn't produce research indicating that whatever it's benefactors want to do is in fact sustainable.