In the wake of a tumultuous season, NBA commissioner Adam Silver has spoken out following a report that the NBA could limit prop bets available on online sports betting sites.
Silver expressed concerns, while speaking with reporters on Monday at the Associated Press Sports Editors Commissioners Conference, but did work to temper expectations as to how much the NBA could influence a booming NBA sports betting market.
"We only have so much control," Silver said. "For example, the NCAA has made the point about the risk to college players. There's a large pool of players in college whose careers will end after they participate in college athletics, so there's not as much at stake. There's clearly a lot more at stake for a superstar player than there is for a two-way player.”
Silver’s discussion stems from a lifetime ban levied against former Toronto Raptors two-way player Jontay Porter, as the 24-year-old violated various league gambling policies, according to an April report from the NBA.
“Certainly, prop bets, depending on how precise they are, lend themselves to more shenanigans than other kinds of bets,” Silver added. “Now, some of that can be captured through various monitoring, but we also recognize that a large amount of the handle -- I'm not sure the precise percentage -- but my hunch is there's still far more illegal [betting] than legal.
"There are limits to our control, but we think there should be a regulated framework, where it's the leagues working together with the state oversight groups and the betting companies, whether or not we have partnerships with them.”
What could be on the horizon as NBA considers changes?
As the NBA continues to consider the fallout of the Porter scandal, Silver has continued to emphasize a strong push for regulatory measures to be implemented to protect NBA integrity. Similar quotes in nature to those expressed on Monday circulated throughout the NBA sphere in the aftermath of the Porter ban from the NBA’s commissioner, emphasizing the importance of “regulatory frameworks” and “collaboration with stakeholders” such as sportsbooks.
However, other, more drastic decisions could be made if the NBA seriously looks to quash future concerns of a similar betting scandal, according to the initial report from ESPN. Given Porter’s status as a two-way player, the league has considered preventing wagers from being placed on players on two-way contracts.
Furthermore, among the more extreme considerations presented by the league, ESPN sources indicated that there has been deliberation on banning “under” player props as well.
“In some cases, we have partnerships with, just take DraftKings and FanDuel, where we don't have absolute control, but when we have a marketing partnership with those companies we have a lot more say than with companies where we have no partnership whatsoever,” Silver said. “Then we're relying on them doing a broader-based concern about integrity in the industry and them not running afoul of the regulators."
