Ahead of the new season, the NBA reached an agreement with authorized sportsbooks to ban certain types of bets that were used in recent frauds, ESPN reported.
League Directives Target Parlays and Short-Minute Props
The North American basketball league instructed major betting partners, including FanDuel and DraftKings, to pull specific wager types off their boards. The prohibitions cover select parlay variations alongside bets tied to the winner of the opening tip-off, specific shooting outcomes, and the statistical performance of athletes projected to play fewer than 12 minutes in a contest.
Hay un equilibrio entre asegurarnos de que eliminamos tipos de apuestas problemáticos y, al mismo tiempo, garantizar que no simplemente trasladamos la actividad al mercado ilegal,
Scott Kaufman-Ross, executive vice president of the NBA, told ESPN regarding the scope of the new rules.
Creemos que, en el punto en el que nos encontramos ahora, hemos alcanzado el equilibrio adecuado entre esos dos objetivos,
Kaufman-Ross added.
League officials retain the regulatory authority to restrict wagering offerings across its official partnerships, which the organization estimates account for roughly 99 percent of the legal sports betting market inside the United States.
Seguimos firmes en nuestro compromiso de construir un mercado legal y regulado que erradique los abusos de quienes buscan socavar la competencia justa y dañar la integridad de los juegos que amamos,
a spokesperson for FanDuel stated in a communication shared with ESPN.
Federal Fraud Cases Sparked the Regulatory Overhaul
The policy adjustments trace back to high-profile federal investigations involving former and current NBA players Jontay Porter and Terry Rozier. Federal prosecutors detailed instances where anomalous betting patterns targeted specific under-performance metrics during regular-season matchups.
In the 2023–24 campaign, prosecutors stated that a bettor placed an $80,000 wager on Porter falling short of statistical projections across six distinct categories during a game involving the Toronto Raptors, yielding a payout of $1.1 million. Porter subsequently admitted to pulling himself out of the contest to ensure the wagers hit.
Federal investigators similarly alleged that Rozier was tied to suspicious wagering activity during his tenure with the Charlotte Hornets in 2023. Rozier has consistently maintained his innocence, entering a not-guilty plea and denying any involvement in improper conduct.
As the new basketball calendar opens, the league’s altered betting menu reflects an effort by operators and administrators to clamp down on vulnerable low-minute props and specialized parlays before similar integrity vulnerabilities can emerge on the floor.
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