NBA Commissioner Adam Silver says the league has asked its sportsbook partners to pull back on the range of prop bets they offer, suggesting that it is “too easy” to manipulate certain markets at the cost of sporting integrity.
Speaking on an episode of The Pat McAfee Show released Tuesday, Silver said that “the worst case scenario” for the league and everyone involved is a player trying to impact their own performance for the purposes of a bet.
NBA have asked operators for fewer prop bets
Silver confirmed that the NBA has asked some of its betting partners to pare down their prop betting menu.
“It’s too easy to manipulate something which seems otherwise small and inconsequential to the overall score,” Silver opined. “Maybe it’s the couple rebounds that some player gets or whatever. We’re trying to put in place, working with the betting companies, some additional controls to prevent some of that manipulation.”
“There’s nothing more important than the integrity of the competition.”
Porter scandal still looms large
During the segment, Silver indirectly referenced the notorious case of Jontay Porter, the former Toronto Raptor who was banned by the NBA for life upon discovery that he had deliberately altered his own performances as part of a gambling scheme. Since that incident last year, other NBA players such as Malik Beasley have been implicated in alleged gambling violations.
In the wake of the Porter scandal, the NBA told SBC Americas this time last year that some sportsbooks had pledged not to offer ‘under prop bets on NBA players who were on two-way or 10-day contracts, like Porter was. Multiple betting operators subsequently confirmed they had pulled such markets.
“There have been players, as you know, who’ve been banned from the game because of betting,” Silver told McAfee and fellow former NFL player Darius Butler. “The problem with all those prop bets is that I always worry, I’m sure they’re players who would never, ever think they would want to manipulate the ultimate outcome of the game. They wouldn’t want to do that to their teammates, they wouldn’t want to do it themselves. But [they] are thinking, ‘Oh, what’s the difference if I’ve won fewer rebounds or whatever else.’
“So that’s why we’ve made it clear there’s very strict enforcement. Just the mere betting on a game, even if it had nothing to do with your particular performance, will result in a suspension and possibly at the end of your career.”
Modernization leads to detection
While Silver has expressed reservations over prop betting multiple times since the Porter debacle, he has remained a broad supporter of online sports betting. One big plus, as he sees it, is the ability to detect suspicious betting.
“I think in the modern digital era the choice is between legalized sports betting or illegal sports betting, not do you want sports betting or not?” he mused. “With this regulated structure of legalized betting, we can monitor in ways that were unimaginable years ago if there’s any aberrational behavior. We have a framework and a structure in place to monitor and prevent those kinds of things happening.
“Most of the action is now online, but that’s actually a good thing because when people aren’t using cash, you have to identify yourself to the betting company. If there’s something unusual happening, there’s ways to monitor those things. But there’s no question it introduces a whole new set of issues.”
Time for federal betting regulation?
Silver also briefly touched on the issue of betting advertising, which remains a sticking point for regulators and legislators across the U.S.
Several states fielded legislation this year to restrict or otherwise later the way that online gambling companies can advertise, and a federal bill in Canada passed the Senate just this week. Silver suggested that a similar nationwide move south of the border might be a good idea.
“I think probably there should be more regulation,” conceded Silver. “Frankly, that may be surprising to hear from me. I wish there was federal legislation rather than state by state. I think you got to monitor the amount of promotion, the amount of advertising around it.”
