On the topic of multiple high-profile gambling scandals, the NBA will no longer allow certain types of bets that appear to be the lowest hanging fruit for potential conspirators.
In a reminder to the league’s sportsbook partners on Friday, ESPN reports that “the managers cannot include under the same statistics in player paralysis, in addition to other betting markets the league considers problematic.”
From ESPN:
The league also directed its gambling operators, including DraftKings and FanDuel, to not place bets on the opening winner, players on certain shots and under bets on players who are expected to play fewer than 12 minutes in a certain game.
The NBA has the power to restrict what participating sportsbooks can offer through their contracts. The NBA rates its partner sportsbooks as above 99% of the US betting market.
These bets on each player above/lines are ripe mainly for fixing that the player can control the outcome. These bets are exploited by Jontay Porter. who received a life ban in 2014 to discover information inside to conduct bets and games. The goalkeeper admitted in court that he kicked himself out of the morning games to avoid hitting under his bets.
If you’re not familiar with how those lines work, let’s say the player’s line bounced for a game set at 3.5. If below, you are betting that the player will finish with three or fewer rebounds. Obviously, a player can largely control that he simply does not rebound the following, and he can exclude the possibility of even accidentally running in a loose rebound or two, simply removing himself from the game for a fake injury, with the start of time to make the game and bets on the official lines.
He arranges this information before the better ones, and they put a bunch of money on him to go under the total project. ESPN notes that the criminal complaint against Porter indicated that federal prosecutors had placed an even better $80,000 parlay on Porter under his line for assists, rebounds, points, 3-pointers, steals and blocks for the March 2024 game between the Raptors and the Kings, which they stood to pay more than a million dollars. The goalkeeper left the game after playing only three minutes.
The same type of scandal was alleged involving Michael Rozierwho retired after nine minutes in the 2023 game, which was called into question for the same reasons conspiracies, and Malik Beasley.
The NBA knows how bad this is for a league now so closely tied to its gambling partners, and these are clear indications that, as much as possible, it is putting the genie in the bottle regarding betting manipulation at its earliest.