NCAA voices concern over prop bets on college athletes

An NCAA official voiced concern Thursday over sports betting on the performance of individual college athletes, and she suggested that gambling regulators consider restrictions on such wagers to protect the integrity of the games.

Speaking at the Sports Betting USA 2020 online seminar, Naima Stevenson-Starks, the NCAA’s vice president for law, policy and governance, expressed concern about so-called proposition bets involving college athletes.

This type of bet concerns whether a given player will or won’t surpass a certain threshold during a game, like whether a quarterback will throw 3 touchdowns or whether a running back will rush for 100 yards.

“Unlike the professional leagues, we are now talking about student-athletes attending class with people who may be betting on their efforts on the field or the court,” Stevenson-Starks said. “That’s a concern. If you can think about missing a field goal or a free throw that might make the difference in a result, that’s not the most settling thought.”

The NFL expressed similar concern about prop bets on its own players a few years ago. But NFL player props are a much larger segment of the sports betting industry than those on college players, something StevensonStarks acknowledged.

A survey Thursday of leading U.S. sportsbooks found little in the way of college player props, although they were more readily available on unlicensed offshore sites that are beyond the reach of U.S. regulators.

A spokeswoman for DraftKings said its college props usually involve which team scores first or last, and how many points a team will score. The lone game listed on the site for Thursday, the Colorado State-Boise State football game, did not offer bets on any individual player.

FanDuel was offering a bet on whether Colorado State quarterback Patrick O’Brien would throw for more than or fewer than 275.5 yards.

Legal sports betting is quickly spreading in the U.S. With six additional states approving or expanding sports betting in this month’s elections, more than half the country is poised to have legal sports betting by the end of next year.