NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB weigh betting risks after Porter scandal
David Purdum, ESPN
A MONTH AFTER the NBA was hit by a gambling scandal involving alleged manipulation, officials at major sports leagues want change on betting menus and betting limits offered at U.S. sportsbooks, according to interviews with league and gambling industry sources.
The NBA’s Adam Silver, the first major U.S. league commissioner to publicly support legalizing betting, told ESPN on Saturday that having regulated sportsbooks handle the betting action — instead of local bookmakers and offshore gambling sites — better protects the league’s integrity and provides “an improved ability to detect aberrant behavior.”
“Still,” Silver wrote in an email, “we believe that sports leagues should have more input into the terms and types of bets offered and that further collaboration is needed among industry stakeholders regarding what is appropriate.”
On April 17, Silver banned Jontay Porter from the NBA, accusing the former Toronto Raptors player of violating the league’s gambling policy. Porter’s “cardinal sin,” according to Silver, came in a March 20 game against the Sacramento Kings, during which he allegedly limited his participation to impact lucrative bets that were placed on his statistics at multiple sportsbooks. He played just 3 minutes before leaving, citing illness.
The Porter case, which is being reviewed by authorities in both Canada and the U.S., is the first to include formal allegations of manipulation since states began legalizing sports betting. It sent a “shiver up the spine of all the leagues,” a professional sports league executive who asked that their name not be used told ESPN.
The sports betting industry says the system is working because illicit activity is being identified, but the leagues and critics wonder if the new market is causing the issues in the first place.
“Everybody is waiting for the big scandal,” said Declan Hill, a professor at the University of New Haven who studies international match-fixing. “One of the leagues is going to be hit by some enormous scandal.”
IN THE WAKE of the Porter controversy, league and industry sources told ESPN the NBA was angry that sportsbooks allowed such large amounts of money to be wagered on an obscure player. Among the most suspicious bets was an $80,000 six-leg, same-game parlay placed with DraftKings consisting of under bets on Porter’s statistics against the Kings that would have won $1.1 million.
The NBA and its partner sportsbooks — which include FanDuel, DraftKings and BetMGM — are discussing changes to betting menus to combat future corruption, ESPN previously reported. Those changes could include prohibiting betting on players signed to two-way contracts between the G League and the NBA, like Porter. More extreme measures, such as not allowing bets on the “under” on a player prop, have also been considered.
The other major leagues are also weighing the financial rewards from this new revenue stream against the inherent risks that come with certain bet types and large betting limits.
The NFL has discouraged sportsbook operators from offering betting on events such as missed field goals and penalties. The NHL asks its partner sportsbooks not to offer wagers on statistics that are difficult to determine and could include some subjectivity, such as the over/under on number of hits by a player, and the NCAA has successfully lobbied individual states to ban betting player props involving college athletes.
Since the start of the season, Major League Baseball has been surveying what types of bets are offered on its players and games. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred told the Associated Press Sports Editors that baseball has been paying close attention to prop bets from the beginning, singling out wagering on the first pitch of games as worrisome. A source familiar with MLB’s position on the betting market, though, told ESPN that the league’s concern is centered as much, if not more, on how much can be wagered on such prop bets.