NBA Seeking Changes To Injury Reporting, Prop Bets

The NBA is seeking to tighten its rules regarding injury reporting and prop betting as well as exploring new ways to discourage tanking, ESPN’s David Purdum and Shams Charania and The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov report.

A memo sent to all teams on Friday also outlined plans to upgrade its education program on gambling, adopt new measures to protect players, coaches and team personnel from harassment from sports bettors, and enhance its ability to investigate unusual betting activity.

Issues regarding injury reporting and prop betting became magnified by the arrests of Heat player Terry Rozier, former player Damon Jones and Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups in October as part of a federal investigation. Federal prosecutors accused Rozier and Jones of supplying bettors with nonpublic information regarding injuries, while Billups — though not specifically named or charged by the feds in this instance — is accused of providing a bettor with nonpublic information about the Trail Blazers.

According to the memo, teams will be required to submit injury reports on game days between 11 AM and 1 PM local time, except on the second night of back-to-back games, and then update public injury reports on NBA.com every 15 minutes, rather than hourly.

In terms of prop bets, the league will push “industry stakeholders” such as sports betting companies for limits on under bets, the maximum amount that can be wagered on player props, limiting which players can be subject to prop bets, and getting rid of what it calls “problematic bet types” like ones that can be determined by one play.

Regarding tanking, the league is mulling changes to rules regarding draft pick protection and the draft lottery.