NBA Instructs Sportsbook Partners To Ban Certain Bets

In response to recent betting scandals, the NBA has directed its sportsbook partners to prohibit or restrict certain types of bets, according to David Purdum and Shams Charania of ESPN.

A memo sent to the league’s authorized gaming operators, including DraftKings and FanDuel, instructed those sportbooks to make the following adjustments, per ESPN:

• Bettors will be prohibited from grouping “under” prop bets on the same player in a parlay.
  • Note: A parlay is a single wager in which multiple bets are grouped together to generate a bigger payout. Each leg of the parlay must win for the bet to pay out.
• Bettors won’t be able to place “under” prop bets on a player who is expected to play fewer than 12 minutes.
• “First-of” micro-bets, such as which team will win the opening tip or which player will score the game’s first basket, won’t be permitted.

Based on its existing agreements with sportsbooks, the NBA has the authority to restrict the sort of bets that its partners offer, Purdum and Charania explain, noting that the league estimates its partners account for roughly 99% of the U.S. betting market.

“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,” NBA executive vice president Scott Kaufman-Ross said to ESPN. “And where we landed right now, we think, is the right balance of those two objectives.”

An “under” prop bet for a specific player means that a bettor is wagering on that player falling short of certain statistical thresholds in categories like points, rebounds, or assists. Parlay bets involving “under” props have been at the center of recent betting scandals involving former NBA players like Jontay Porter and Terry Rozier.

Porter, who has been banned from the NBA, admitted in court that he checked out of games early to aid bettors who had wagered on “under” props. Federal prosecutors have accused Rozier of doing the same thing in a March 2023 game in which he exited due to an injury after playing just nine minutes. He has denied those allegations and pleaded not guilty — his case remains unresolved.

As Charania notes (via Twitter), the new list of betting restrictions will supplement the limitations implemented in the past, including an inability to bet on 10-day or two-way players, as well as prohibitions on prop bets related to turnovers, fouls, and missed free throws.