NCAA looking to stop the props
The NCAA is looking to put an end to college prop betting as we know it amid recent concerns involving sports betting.
“Sports betting issues are on the rise across the country with prop bets continuing to threaten the integrity of competition and leading to studentathletes and professional athletes getting harassed,” NCAA president Charlie Baker said Wednesday in a statement posted to social media.
“The NCAA has been working with states to deal with these threats, and many are responding by banning college prop bets.
“This week, we will be contacting officials across the country in states that still allow these bets and ask them to join Ohio, Vermont, Maryland, and many others and remove college prop bets from all betting markets.”
New York is also among the states that have banned player-specific prop bets on college sports, including the typical player point totals, assists, rebounds and more.
College sports betting has long had different rules than professional sports when it comes to legalized gambling, with most states disallowing betting on in-state college sports and many states not letting bets on college-player props.
This comes just days after the NBA announced that Jontay Porter — the brother of Michael Porter Jr. and a fringe NBA player — was being investigated by the league for strange betting patterns on his prop bets.
Post-Action Betting reported Tuesday that Porter promoted gambling on a burner X account in 2022, thanking a gambling account for a winning March Madness parlay.
In theory, if Porter, whose salary in the NBA is $415,000, is able to be corrupted by gamblers, there’s no telling as to what a college player could be exposed to.
One bettor posted an unconfirmed parlay betting ticket worth $80,000 that paid out $1.2 million when Porter checked himself out of a game, winning a substantial amount of money for anyone who bet on his unders.
College players do make some money thanks to NIL sponsorship deals, but the vast majority don’t make more than Porter.
Some NBA players and coaches have been outspoken recently about prop bets and how gamblers react when numbers fail to hit. Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton said his social media is filled with complaints and Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff revealed he received threats from gamblers last season and reported it to the NBA.
Earlier this month, U.S. Integrity, a company used by many professional sports leagues and college conferences to monitor betting activity, flagged a Temple regular-season men’s basketball game for wagering irregularities.
The NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments are a huge draw for gamblers. The American Gaming Association estimates $2.7 billion will be bet this year on March Madness through legal sportsbooks.
Of course the biggest headline in the sports betting world surrounds Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, though he is not accused of gambling himself.
His interpreter is accused of stealing $4.5 million from him and using it to gamble on the black market in California — where sports betting is still illegal.