NBA Introduces New Sports Betting Policies

With sports betting becoming more popular, the NBA is reportedly "enacting several sports betting policies to its 30 teams."

Stricter Injury Reporting Requirements

ESPN's Shams Charania reported Friday the league's policies include a change for injury reporting. Teams must now resubmit injury listings between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. local time during the day of games and then update any public reports every 15 minutes.

Changes to Player Prop Bets

What's more, Charania reported the "NBA is also pushing gaming companies for changes to prop bets involving individual players."

The league hopes there will be limits on how much bettors can gamble and how many players will have prop bets, as well as fewer betting opportunities for "unders" for players.

Review of Tanking Policies and Draft Rules

According to Charania, the NBA told its teams Friday it is reviewing policies for tanking and may modify rules surrounding the draft lottery and pick protections:

"Core to the NBA's position is that sports leagues should have control over the types of bets offered on their games," the league's memo to its teams said, per Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic. "Because leagues currently do not have such control, any changes will need to be pursued via negotiation with sports betting operations, requests to state gaming regulators, legislative action, or some combination of these avenues."

Context: Betting, Integrity and the Jontay Porter Case

This comes at a time when betting on sports has continued to make headlines.

Notably, the NBA banned Jontay Porter from the league in April 2024 when an investigation found he violated the league's gambling rules.

"There is nothing more important than protecting the integrity of NBA competition for our fans, our teams and everyone associated with our sport, which is why Jontay Porter's blatant violations of our gaming rules are being met with the most severe punishment," commissioner Adam Silver said in the league's announcement.

"While legal sports betting creates transparency that helps identify suspicious or abnormal activity, this matter also raises important issues about the sufficiency of the regulatory framework currently in place, including the types of bets offered on our games and players. Working closely with all relevant stakeholders across the industry, we will continue to work diligently to safeguard our league and game."

Ongoing Efforts to Safeguard the Game

Friday's developments seem to be the latest effort from the NBA to provide some of those safeguards.