NBA Pushes for Major Changes to Prop Bets in Wake of Gambling Scandal

Blake Silverman | 44 Minutes Ago

NBA commissioner Adam Silver is dealing with the fall out from the league’s gambling controversies / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

As the NBA tries to pick up the pieces from the FBI’s ongoing gambling probe, its most critical goal is maintaining the integrity of the game by preventing similar issues in the future.

According to a report Thursday from ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania, the NBA is enacting several sports betting policies to its 30 teams, which includes a change to injury reporting rules. Charania reported that teams will now be required to resubmit injury listings on game days between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. local time and update public reports every 15 minutes, citing sources.

The NBA is also pushing gaming companies to make changes to offered prop bets surrounding individual players, such as limiting maximum amounts that can be bet, limits on “under” prop bets, limiting the population of players and eliminating problematic bet types, like bets on an action in a single play.

Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, Heat guard Terry Rozier and former NBA player and assistant coach Damon Jones were arrested in October as part of the FBI’s gambling probe. Rozier and Jones were listed as two of the defendants in the sports betting case, while Billups was arrested for alleged involvement in an illegal poker operation associated with the mafia.

According to the indictment, Rozier, Jones and other defendants had “access to private information known by NBA players or NBA coaches” and provided that information to coconspirators for a fee or share of profits. Following the arrests, the league issued a statement that Billups and Rozier were being placed on leave from their respective teams. A few days later, the league sent a memo to its 30 teams regarding its gambling policy, announcing a review of several rules and an increased focus on prop bets in particular.

Last year, the NBA banned Raptors forward Jontay Porter for life. A league investigation found that he disclosed confidential information about his own health status to an individual he knew to be an NBA bettor, limited his own game participation to influence the outcome of one or more bets on his performance in at least one Raptors game and placed at least 13 bets on NBA games using an associate’s online betting account while traveling with the Raptors or their G League affiliate.

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