The NBA and the NBPA want to limit sports betting to prevent further manipulation that could damage the league’s reputation.
“We consider protecting the integrity of our game to be a priority, and we believe that appropriate restrictions on certain prop bets should be seriously considered,” an NBA spokesperson said in a statement to ESPN. “Any approach should aim to reduce the risk of performance manipulation while ensuring that fans who wish to place prop bets can continue to do so through legal, regulated markets,” the statement continued.
Prop bets are special bets that focus on whether certain outcomes will occur or not during a game. Former Raptors player Jontay Porter, who was banned for life by Adam Silver in 2024 for game manipulation, also took advantage of such a prop bet. During the 2023/24 season, Porter left the game early twice, allowing those who bet that he would remain below a certain number of points to win their bets.
In addition to Porter, there are two more recent and much more prominent cases involving Terry Rozier and Malik Beasley, who are also under investigation for match-fixing. However, neither has been found guilty so far.
Sports betting: NBPA supports stricter regulations
“[Players] are concerned that prop bets have increasingly become an alarming source of harassment for players, both online and in person,” a spokesperson for the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) said in a statement to ESPN. “If stricter regulations can help minimize this abuse, then we support looking into them more closely.”
Nets forward Michael Porter Jr., the brother of suspended Jontay Porter, also recently warned against sports betting and the temptation for NBA players to try to make their friends and family rich in a podcast. “Imagine you can make all your friends rich by saying, ‘Bet $10,000 on me to under in this game, I’ll pretend I have an injury…’ – and everyone makes money off it. Some people come from nothing and just think that way,” the 27-year-old explained.
Two states, Ohio and New Jersey, have already drawn conclusions from the developments of recent months and officially banned so-called “microbets” after suspicions of match-fixing also arose in the MLB.
