NBA, Sportsbook Partners Scrap Under Prop Bets on Low-Salary Players
Ahead of the start of the 2024-25 season next week, the NBA and its sportsbook partners agreed to stop offering under player proposition wagers on the association’s lowest paid players.
The move comes in the wake of the Jontay Porter scandal. Earlier this year, the former Toronto Raptors was banned for life from the NBA after an investigation revealed he altered his performance in some games and accepted cash from bettors that wagered on him.
The average salary for NBA players this year is $11.9 million with minimum ranging from $1.1 million for rookies to $3.3 million for athletes with 10 or more years of experience. So “low salary” is arguably subjective, but the league and its gaming partners are reportedly defining that as players on two-way or 10-day contracts.
Two-way contracts are applied to players that bounce back-and-forth between the NBA and their respective teams’ G-League affiliates — a status that applied to Porter at the time the betting scandal erupted. Regulated domestic sportsbooks don’t offer bets on the G-League.
NBA Looking to Curb Manipulation
The NBA has widely embraced regulated sports wagering and related partnerships with gaming companies since the 2018 Supreme Court ruling on the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), but following the Porter case, the league is aware lowly paid players could be susceptible to manipulation by bad actors.
We are pleased that these actions have been taken to help protect the integrity of our games,” a league representative told The Athletic.
Under the league’s current wagering policy, players and league and team employers are barred from betting on anything related to the association, including NBA, G-League and WNBA games. Players aren’t required to sign anything to that effect, but their collective bargaining agreements includes sections on what forms of betting are accepted and prohibited by the league.
Punishments for offenders can range from fines and suspensions or, in the case of Porter, contract termination and bans from the league.
New NBA Policy Unlikely to Harm Operators
In the NBA, popular player prop bets include over/under wagers on assists, points, and rebounds, among other marquee statistics. There also combinations in which a bettor can take the over or under on a players combined assists, points, and rebounds in a single game.
As for the potential impact of banning unders on low paid players, it’s unlikely to result in a significant pinch for gaming companies for multiple reasons. First, many retail bettors are more apt to bet overs. Second, the retail bettors that love player props have tendencies to focus on well-known players, not obscure names.
NBA sportsbook partners include BetMGM, DraftKings, and FanDuel.
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