- The NBA sent out a memo outlining its plans to crack down on illegal insider trading pertaining to NBA games.
- Injury reporting was one of the biggest points of emphasis with changes expected to be implemented during this season.
NEW YORK – In the aftermath of a league-shaking sports betting scandal, the NBA has announced its initiative to discourage and attempt to eliminate insider trading when it comes to NBA prop bets and tanking.
In October, a series of arrests were made – including those of Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, and former Cleveland Cavaliers assistant coach Damon Jones – pertaining to multiple conspiracies involving insider trading for profit on NBA games.
The league announced that its initiative will focus on reducing tanking, more frequent injury reporting, restricting prop bets, educating players and coaches on gambling, new measures to protect players and coaches from harassment, and enhanced measures to investigate suspicious betting activity.
Adjustments To Reduce Tanking
The league is considering changing rules around draft pick protection and the draft lottery. The current draft lottery gives each team that didn’t make the playoffs different odds to win higher picks, with the lowest record earning the best odds.
Tanking has been a point of contention in the NBA, especially in the past ten years as teams have begun to adopt a “championship or bust” mentality, where they either go all-in to win a title in any given year or purposely tank to get a good draft pick.
Injury Reporting
While other parts of the memo sent out by the league were somewhat vague, it was definitively stated that teams will be required to report injuries on game days between 11 AM to 1 PM local time with updates every 15 minutes.
Though no date was mentioned as to when this policy will be implemented, it is meant to encourage transparency around the status of players on any given day.
Restricting Prop Bets
Prop bets have been under fire in multiple states and leagues recently, consistently being cited as the biggest threat of performance manipulation.
Legal sports betting sites have maintained their stance on prop bets, making it clear that they will not remove the markets unless there is legislation put in place that forces them to stop offering such bets.
The league has proposed limiting under bets, placing a cap on prop bet wagers, limiting players that can have prop bets offered, and banning “micro betting,” bets that are wagered on the outcome of a specific play.
The NBA will have to work with its many partners that offer legal NBA betting, namely FanDuel and DraftKings.
