NCAA President Charlie Baker is speaking out about prop betting and college sports, and he wants to see a change within sports gambling.
Baker released a statement Wednesday calling for sportsbooks to discontinue prop bets within college contests. He stated “the NCAA is drawing the line on sports betting to protect student-athletes and to protect the integrity of the game.”
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“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 and professional athletes getting harassed,” Baker stated. “The NCAA has been working with states to deal with these threats and many are responding by banning college prop bets. 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. 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.”
Baker is the latest leader to put in question prop bets, which some states already disallow including Maryland and Ohio.
Irregular betting patterns have become a popular topic in recent years as mor states legalize sports gambling. Prop bets are unique because bettors gamble on outcomes unrelated to the final score.
According to Ralph D. Russo of The Associated Press, there are 38 states that allow some form of sports betting.
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The NCAA also “has partnered with a data science company called Signify, which also works with the NBA Players Association and WNBA, to identify online threats made to athletes during championship events that are linked to wagering,” according to the AP.
Here are where some states stand on sports gambling, according to the AP:
Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon and Pennsylvania “have rules prohibiting prop betting on college athletes that predate the NCAA’s recent push.”
Connecticut, Illinois and Iowa “do not allow college athlete prop bets involving in-state teams.”
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Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan and Wyoming “allow bettors to place prop bets on college athletes regardless of where they play.”
Ohio, Maryland and Vermont “have removed prop betting on college athletes online and in sportsbooks.”
Baker figures to lead an important effort to remove prop betting on college competition from sportsbooks. There have been instances around the NCAA, such as when a Temple men’s basketball regular season game was flagged by U.S. Integrity “for wagering irregularities,” according to the AP.
