NBA Commissioner calls for increased sports betting regulation
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who was the first leader of a major professional league to publicly support U.S. sports betting legalization, called for more regulation to protect the sport.
Speaking on "The Pat McAfee Show" Tuesday, Silver argued that stricter rules are necessary to reduce the chances of game manipulation related to gambling and to combat the rise of bad fan behavior in arenas, which he suggested may stem from losing wagers. He noted that the NBA has already taken action, specifically by limiting betting options on players with two-way contracts.
From ESPN:
Quote:
"We've asked some of our partners to pull back some of the prop bets, especially when they're on two-way players, guys who don't have the same stake in the competition, where it's too easy to manipulate something, which seems otherwise small and inconsequential to the overall score," said Silver. "We're trying to put in place -- learning as we go and working with the betting companies -- some additional control to prevent some of that manipulation."
Silver said that prop bets also can lead to abuse of players from fans, even in winning efforts.
"It's often the case that your team wins and a player scores 25 points, but the fan, the bettor, had bet that the player was going to score 28 points or 30 points," Silver said. "We have to protect the competitors. We want to protect the environment in the arena of people getting out of hand."
Read more: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...ing-regulation
