The National Basketball Association issued new guidance to its sportsbook partners Friday, restricting bet types including the same-player parlays at the center of the league’s recent betting scandals.
SBC Americas confirmed the news with the NBA and its sportsbook partners DraftKings and FanDuel. ESPN first reported the league memo, which bars authorized NBA betting operators from letting bettors combine unders on the same player’s statistics in a parlay.
“Protecting the integrity of our games remains the NBA’s top priority. Building on existing safeguards, we are strengthening betting education and monitoring, working with operators to expand limits on bets that are more susceptible to manipulation, and improving protections against betting-related harassment to help safeguard our competition, players and personnel,” an NBA spokesperson wrote in an email to SBC Americas.
A media note sent out Friday afternoon said the league also issued guidance on several other bet types that “present heightened integrity risks.” The questioned NBA bets include:
- Individual player “first-of” markets, like a player scoring a first basket
- Winner of the opening tip
- Players missing specific shots
- Unders for players expected to play fewer than 12 minutes
The NBA noted the new guidance builds on prior restrictions, including limits on bets involving players on two-way or 10-day contracts and restrictions on turnovers, fouls and missed free throws. The same rules will apply to WNBA games starting in 2027.
The NBA season begins Tuesday.
DraftKings, FanDuel back NBA bet bans
The NBA can restrict what partner sportsbooks offer through its agreements, and it estimates those partners account for the overwhelming majority of the U.S. betting market, according to ESPN.
A DraftKings spokesperson said the NBA betting guidance “formalizes many of the market restrictions already reflected” in the company’s practices.
“DraftKings supports the NBA’s efforts and is committed to continued collaboration with the league to maintain game integrity, including through appropriate limits on betting markets,” the spokesperson said. “DraftKings’ Code of Responsible Engagement is fully aligned with the league’s stance on the harassment of athletes, coaches or officials.”
A FanDuel spokesperson said the new rules demonstrate “a foundation of dialogue and collaboration with our league partners.”
“We remain unwavering in our commitment to building a legal and regulated market that roots out abuses by those who seek to undermine fair competition and damage the integrity of the games we love,” the spokesperson said.
League goal to keep sports bettors in legal market
NBA Executive Vice President Scott Kaufman-Ross told ESPN the league tried to avoid pushing bettors offshore.
“There’s a balance between ensuring that we are removing problematic bet types but also ensuring that we don’t just move activity into the illegal market,” he said. “And where we landed right now, we think, is the right balance of those two objectives.”
Along with the sportsbook memo, the NBA sent teams a separate note on integrity measures. Former NFL star and retired FBI agent Charles Tillman will lead in-person training on the league’s betting rules. The NBA also:
- Expanded its AI-based monitoring platform for unusual betting activity
- Updated its fan code of conduct to address harassment by bettors
- Partnered with Social Protect to identify and delete harassing social media messages
- Launched a text message hotline for reporting threats
NBA betting scandals the backdrop for changes
The NBA betting guidance arrives almost a year after the FBI arrested Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former NBA guard Damon Jones in federal cases that prosecutors said involved leaked inside information on NBA players and rigged poker games backed by organized crime families.
The same-player under parlays appears in the federal cases against both Rozier and former NBA player Jontay Porter. Porter admitted in court that he pulled himself out of games early to benefit bettors while on a two-way contract with the Toronto Raptors during the 2023-24 season.
Prosecutors said one bettor placed an $80,000 parlay on unders across Porter’s stats in a March 2024 game against the Sacramento Kings. The bet would have paid about $1.1 million. Porter left the game after three minutes. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver banned him from the league in 2024.
Prosecutors allege bettors used the same strategy a year earlier, placing unders on Rozier in a March 2023 Charlotte Hornets game against the New Orleans Pelicans, when Rozier left after approximately nine minutes. In May, an indictment added sports bribery and honest services wire fraud conspiracy charges, accusing Rozier of agreeing to a $100,000 bribe. Rozier pleaded not guilty, and his trial is set for February 2027.
Kaufman-Ross told ESPN the Porter and Rozier cases played a direct role in the parlay ban for NBA betting.
“Seeing where we may have had issues in the past is one of the inputs to determining the types of things that we think could be problematic,” he told ESPN.
