The Missouri Gaming Commission (MGC) has quickly denied the National Collegiate Athletics Association’s (NCAA) request to ban player prop wagers on college athletes, as well as first-half under spread bets on college basketball games.
The state gaming regulator received the request from the association on Jan. 15. After a meeting on Jan. 22, the regulator issued a notice of action in which it confirmed that while it considered the ask, it would not be making the change less than two months into the lifespan of its sports betting market. Commissioners voted 3-0 in favor of rejecting the request at Thursday’s meeting.
“Be it resolved that the Missouri Gaming Commission denies the NCAA’s request in its entirety,” said the notice, “and be it further resolved that collegiate player prop wagers and fust [sic] half under spread wagers shall continue to be permitted wagers in the state of Missouri.”
MGC will not be rushed, may revisit idea
Fox2Now reported that while the commissioners voted unanimously not to ban the college bets, their main rationale was to buy themselves more time to review the issue and collect more data.
“I just don’t feel that I have enough information to grant a request by the NCAA to prohibit this type of sports wagering, because I don’t know enough yet,” said MGC Chair Jan Zimmerman, as quoted by the Associated Press.
Missouri only launched its sports betting market on Dec. 1. The MGC announced the day after it received the letter that it would accept public comments on the matter until Jan. 21, a window of just four weekdays. MGC Executive Director Mike Leara said that the commission also received comments from gaming industry stakeholders. The Sports Betting Alliance (SBA), representing five Missouri-licensed sportsbooks, reportedly wrote to the MGC opposing the NCAA request, citing the monitoring and detection work they conduct and the threat of pushing bettors into the black market.
“We will continue to look at this issue,” Zimmerman added, as reported by NPR. “We will be tasking the staff with providing us as much information to educate ourselves going forward, so that if additional information changes our perspective with regard to this issue, we have the opportunity to revisit it at a time that’s appropriate.”
Many states limit college props, but scandals magnify issue
NCAA President Charlie Baker has been calling for college player prop bets to be banned since at least early 2024 and previously asked regulators in other legal sports wagering states to ban them. Several states, including Ohio, Maryland, Vermont and Louisiana, agreed to do so.
The likes of New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia do not allow player prop bets on any college athletes, and others including Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa and New Jersey limit them to players at out-of-state schools only.
Missouri’s sports betting regulations allow bettors in the state to wager on college teams, but not on individual athletes in games involving Missouri teams.
The NCAA made the Missouri request days after the federal government charged more than two-dozen individuals in a point-shaving scheme in which players were accused of trying to illegally fix college basketball games by manipulating their own performances. That is just the latest in a lengthening line of scandals involving betting-related performance-fixing in college sports.
