The National Basketball Association (NBA) has announced new restrictions for its sportsbook partners, including significant measures against certain bet types like same-player parlays, which have been at the center of the league's recent betting scandals. This information was confirmed on Friday by SBC Americas, following a report from ESPN detailing a memo sent out by the NBA.
The memo indicates that authorized NBA betting operators, such as DraftKings and FanDuel, are prohibited from allowing bettors to combine unders on the statistics of the same player within a parlay. An NBA spokesperson emphasized in an email to SBC Americas, "Protecting the integrity of our games remains the NBA’s top priority. Building on existing safeguards, we are strengthening betting education and monitoring, working with operators to expand limits on bets that are more susceptible to manipulation, and improving protections against betting-related harassment to help safeguard our competition, players, and personnel.”
Additionally, the league has identified other types of bets that present heightened integrity risks, which are now included in the new guidance. These include:
– Individual player “first-of” markets, such as betting on who scores the first basket
– The outcome of the opening tip
– Players missing specific shots
– Betting unders on players anticipated to play fewer than 12 minutes
The NBA noted that these updated restrictions build on prior rules which limit bets involving players under two-way or 10-day contracts. Similar rules are expected to be applied to Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) games starting in 2027. The NBA season is set to kick off on Tuesday.
In their partnerships, the NBA can dictate the types of bets offered, and estimates suggest that its sportsbook partners represent a significant portion of the U.S. betting market. A representative from DraftKings stated that the NBA's guidance formalizes many restrictions already in place. The spokesperson added, "DraftKings supports the NBA's efforts and is committed to continued collaboration with the league to maintain game integrity, including through appropriate limits on betting markets.”
FanDuel echoed similar sentiments, stating that the new rules reflect a collaborative effort with league partners. Their spokesperson insisted on a commitment to developing a legal and regulated betting environment that curtails abuses affecting fair competition and game integrity.
Scott Kaufman-Ross, the NBA’s Executive Vice President, highlighted the league's objective of keeping bettors within the legal betting market. He stated, "There’s a balance between ensuring that we are removing problematic bet types but also ensuring that we don’t just move activity into the illegal market. And where we landed right now, we think, is the right balance of those two objectives."
With this memo, NBA teams received a separate communication regarding integrity measures. Charles Tillman, a former NFL player and retired FBI agent, will be responsible for conducting in-person training about the league's betting regulations. The NBA has also:
– Expanded its AI monitoring platform to detect unusual betting activity.
– Updated its fan code of conduct to address issues of harassment from bettors.
– Partnered with Social Protect to identify and remove harassing messages on social media.
– Launched a text hotline for reporting threats.
These actions follow a series of betting scandals involving NBA players. Notably, the FBI arrested Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, and former NBA guard Damon Jones regarding schemes that included leaks of insider information and rigged poker games linked to organized crime.
In the federal cases against Rozier and former NBA player Jontay Porter, same-player under parlays were highlighted. Porter confessed in court to pulling himself out of games early to benefit bettors during the 2023-24 season while on a two-way contract with the Toronto Raptors. In a specific incident reported, a bettor placed an $80,000 parlay on Porter’s unders during a March 2024 game against the Sacramento Kings, which could have paid out approximately $1.1 million. Porter left the game after just three minutes, leading to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver banning him from the league.
Rozier’s case involved similar betting strategies; in March 2023, he exited a game against the New Orleans Pelicans after about nine minutes. This led to an indictment that included charges of sports bribery and honest services wire fraud conspiracy, where Rozier was accused of accepting a $100,000 bribe. He has pleaded not guilty, and his trial is scheduled for February 2027.
According to Kaufman-Ross, the lessons learned from the Porter and Rozier cases directly influenced the decision to implement the new parlay restrictions. He expressed that understanding previous issues played a key role in determining which betting practices might be problematic.
