On Wednesday, March 21, news broke that the NCAA is officially seeking a country-wide ban on sports betting props involving collegiate athletes. This news comes during a week in which we’ve seen multiple scandals in professional baseball involving sports betting. On February 23, Ohio banned college player props and expected other states to follow suit. It was only a matter of time before the NCAA stepped in, and NCAA president Charlie Baker addressed the issue this morning.
“Sports betting issues are on the rise across the country with prop bets continuing to threaten the integrity of competition and leading to student-athletes and professional athletes getting harassed. The NCAA has been working with states to deal with these threats and many are responding by banning college prop bets. This week we will be contacting officials across the country in states that still allow these bets and ask them to join Ohio, Vermont, Maryland and many others and remove college prop bets from all betting markets. The NCAA is drawing the line on sports betting to protect student-athletes and to protect the integrity of the game – issues across the country these last several days show there is more work to be done.” – Charlie Baker
Sports Betting Issues Involving the Integrity of the Game
One of the major concerns of the widespread legalization of sports gambling was upholding the integrity of the game. There have been a multitude of scandals involving betting throughout sports history, but with the ease of access online sports gambling provides, many believe there is an increased possibility of fixing games. With the rise in popularity of player props, a new way of fixing bets for a prophet arose.
One of the more recent scandals we’ve seen involved collegiate athletes at Iowa and Iowa State. This scandal involved players, including Iowa State’s starting quarterback Hunter Dekkers, placing wagers on games they participated in. It does not appear that the players involved were betting on player prop bets that included themselves. However, Iowa placekicker Aaron Blom placed a bet on the under total points, which caused concern due to his position on the field directly contributing to scoring points.
In the sportsbooks’ defense, any issue involving sports betting and the integrity of sports appears to have been identified and punished. Commercial sportsbooks spend a lot of money and resources on regulations and risk. The regulations of commercial sportsbooks were seen as a positive by lawmakers and were a strong contributor towards legalization. One can argue that without sportsbooks flagging suspicious activity, these issues would not have been found, and continue on off-shore sportsbooks.
Sports Betting Issues Involving the Harassment of Players
The other overarching issue involving sports betting legalization is the harassment of players. There have been multiple reported issues of players being harassed online by fans upset with losing bets. The severe criticism these young athletes face harms their mental health. Some of the issues have been reported to be extreme causing players to fear for their safety. The NCAA is the governing body of collegiate athletics and is supposed to prioritize the health of its athletes.
While we have seen these issues take place without sports betting taking place, the NCAA believes that eliminating player-prop betting in college sports will reduce both of these issues.
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