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NBA and sports betting partners eliminate under-prop bets on low-salary players

NBA and sports betting partners eliminate under-prop bets on low-salary players

Posted on: October 19, 2024, 6:38 am.

Last updated on: October 19, 2024, 6:38 am.

Ahead of the start of the 2024-25 season next week, the NBA and its sports betting partners agreed to no longer offer bets on the association’s lowest-paid players.

Jontay Porter, Long Phi Pham, Toronto Raptors, spot fixing, match fixing
Former Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter. The NBA is banning prop-under betting on low-paid players in the wake of its betting scandal. (Picture: AP)

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 found he altered his performances in some games and accepted cash from bettors on him.

The average salary for NBA players this year is $11.9 million, with the minimum salary 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 playing partners reportedly define this as players on two-way or 10-day contracts.

Two-way contracts apply to players who move back and forth between the NBA and their respective team’s G League affiliates – a status that applied to Porter at the time the betting scandal broke. Regulated domestic sportsbooks do not offer betting on the G-League.

NBA wants to curb manipulation

The NBA has widely advocated for regulated sports betting and related partnerships with gaming companies since the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in 2018. However, after the Porter case, the league is aware that low-paid players could be vulnerable to manipulation by bad actors.

We are pleased that these measures have been taken to protect the integrity of our games,” a league representative said The athlete.

Under the league’s current betting policy, players and league and team employers are prohibited from betting on anything related to the association, including NBA, G League and WNBA games. Players are not required to sign anything in this regard, but their collective bargaining agreements contain sections about what forms of betting are acceptable and prohibited by the league.

Penalties for violations can range from fines and suspensions to contract terminations and league bans in Porter’s case.

The new NBA policy is unlikely to harm operators

Popular player prop bets in the NBA include over/under bets on assists, points and rebounds, and other important stats. There are also combinations where a bettor can score the over or under of a player’s combined assists, points and rebounds in a single game.

As for the potential impact of banning unders on low-paying players, it is unlikely to result in significant losses for gambling companies for several reasons. Firstly, many private bettors tend to over bet. Second, retail bettors who love player props tend to focus on well-known players rather than unknown names.

NBA sports betting partners include BetMGM, DraftKings and FanDuel.