“Oh, yeah, it happens all the time.” Purdue center Zach Edey provided this nonchalant response to the Athletic on its question of online harassment from bettors who took a financial hit when individual players failed to perform with wagers riding on the outcome of a prop bet. Most rebounds, for example. Or most assists or free throws. “Like after every game, probably.”
Multiple college athletes spoke to the Athletic recently about their experiences with online harassment from bettors. North Carolina Tar Heels star Armando Bacot said he’s received social media and in-person responses from losing bettors.
Comments like those explain why a growing number of sports betting states are banning or restricting the use of proposition bets in the college arena. Of 38 states with sports betting, 10 have bans.
Maryland and Ohio barred college prop bets before March Madness. West Virginia and New Mexico are in the process of approving versions of bills to protect college athletes.
Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa and New Jersey prohibit college prop wagers for in-state teams. Louisiana approved an in-state ban effective August 1, just prior to the football season.
“It is the intention of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board to protect the integrity of sports betting as well as the safety and integrity of college athletes,” Louisiana Gaming Control Board chairman Ronnie Johns said in a statement. “We feel that this order accomplishes that goal.”
Bettors can still bet on the totals, point spreads and outcomes of games. Prop bets on “full team statistical outcomes” will still be allowed in Louisiana.
But the prohibitions come with a price. In a financial note to investors, Citizens JMP Securities estimated sportsbooks could lose $200 million in annual revenue—if there was a total ban on such wagers. The figure represents 1.8 percent of the $11.1 billion generated in 2023, LSR analyst Eric Ramsey said.
The JMP note comes as the NCAA calls for a nationwide ban on collegiate prop bets in the wake of a handful of scandals in college sports, MLB and the NBA. At the same time, bettors placed a record number of wagers on the recent NCAA basketball tourneys.
“Sports betting issues are on the rise across the country with prop bets continuing to threaten the integrity of competition and leading to student-athletes getting harassed,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a statement. “The NCAA has been working with states to deal with these threats and many are responding by banning college prop bets.”
In its report, JMP extrapolated the industry loss based on existing figures that show college sports betting resulted in 15 percent of the total bet in 2023, or $1.6 billion, of the total $121 billion wagered, according to Covers.
Large operators like DraftKings and FanDuel who depend more on prop bets would feel the pinch more than smaller operators. FanDuel could see a decrease of $55 million in EBITDA while DraftKings would experience a $45 million drop.
Jordan Bender, a senior equity research analyst at Citizens JMP Securities said, “At the end of the day, bettors will find a way to wager on events and players, and we believe the effort to ban individual player betting will likely only push players back offshore.”
