North Carolina became the 38th state to launch sports betting just prior to the NCAA men and women’s tournaments, with more to come. The growing number of legal sportsbook operators has also led to a growing number of options available to bettors.
Nowhere is that more evident than proposition bets, wagers on individual athlete performance. How many 3-pointers will player A make during the game? How many RBIs will player B drive in?
Unlike betting on the outcome of a team, a prop bet—as it is also called—focuses on single players. That focus can put undue pressure on the player who has to perform. If a lot of money rides on a performance, and the player fails to deliver…in the movies you have a couple of bruisers get tough with the player. But this is real life, so it may be more subtle than that.
If the player in question is a college athlete, the pressure to perform can lead to unwarranted threats.
“Sports betting issues are on the rise across the country with prop bets continuing to threaten the integrity and competition and leading to student athletes and professional athletes getting harassed. The NCAA has been working with states to deal with these threats and many are responding by banning college prop bets,” NCAA president Charlie Baker said in a statement.
It should come as no surprise that the association wants to bar prop bets at the collegiate level.
ESPN reported that the NBA is examining betting irregularities associated with Raptors’ Jontay Porter. Two bets were the two largest winning prop bets for two evenings. In both games, Porter left early, which helped ensure the under won the bets.
Baker does not want an issue like that to rear its head in college games.
“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,” he said. “The NCAA is drawing the line on sports betting to protect student-athletes and to protect the integrity of the game. Issues across the country these last several days show there is more work to be done.”
The American Gaming Association has indicated that $2.7 billion will be bet this year with legal sportsbooks on the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments through legal sportsbooks.
Sports betting monitors cautioned college sports administrators that prop betting on unpaid athletes raises the risk for a scandal.
San Diego State athletic director JD Wicker echoed those sentiments.
“Our student athletes are going to class, they’re more available in the community,” Wicker said. “So, there’s a lot more opportunity for one of them to be pressured, for them to have something negative happen because maybe they miss the free throw or they miss the over, the under, all those types of things.”
Illinois coach Brad Underwood wants to maintain competitive integrity.
“I think in the Big Ten, we’ve been very, very proactive in terms of putting out an injury report before games to help protect student-athletes and coaches. I’m a big fan of that,” he said from the East Regional in Boston. “To me, the greatness of college athletics is the competitive integrity that we have, and we should be able to keep that.”
Multiple U.S. gambling states have moved to restrict prop bets.
As the NCAA’s media release further states, the organization is pushing for new regulations to minimize damage:
- Protect student-athletes from harassment or coercion
- Address the negative impacts of problem gambling
- Protect the integrity of the competition
In Ohio, student-athletes, campus leaders and the national NCAA office worked with gaming regulators to ban player prop bets. In the wake of Ohio’s action, West Virginia, New Mexico and Maryland have taken steps to minimize such issues.
In related news, the NCAA released the Draw the Line campaign which concentrates on the education of student-athletes and the impact of sports betting. The campaign, timed for the NCAA tournament, deals with problem gambling as well.
The campaign also coincided with National Problem Gaming Awareness Month in March, which talks about prevention, treatment and other services across social media channels.
The NCAA’s primary worry centers on the vulnerability of student-athletes to manipulation by others. To combat these factors, the association advocates a legislative solution but still strives to protect the student-athletes from persecution through gaming advertising aimed at young people.
The NCAA partnered with Signify Group on an initiative that zeroes in on harassment centered around the 2023-24 championship season, when the risk intensifies.
Another element involves educational efforts in conjunction with EPIC Global Solutions, whose goal is to talk to 500,000 current and potential student-athletes on problem gambling issues and the risks sports betting carries.
“Sports betting is everywhere, especially on college campuses, so it’s critical that student-athletes get the real story about how it can impact them and their ability to play,” Baker said. “That’s why we are advocating for policy changes at the state level and launching monitoring tools around championships to refer serious threats to law enforcement. The NCAA is doing more than ever to protect the integrity of the game and arm student-athletes with the truth about sports betting.”
