iStockphoto / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
The NBA has found itself at the center of multiple scandals in recent years involving players who were accused of leaking inside information to people who subsequently profited from bets they placed. However, it will be harder for similar incidents to unfold in the future after the league directed sportsbooks to stop accepting certain types of wagers ahead of the upcoming season.
The NBA was largely immune to any major betting scandals until it was treated to one in 2007 courtesy of Tim Donaghy, the disgraced referee who was sentenced to 15 months in prison after he was nabbed for wagering on dozens of games he officiated.
The league kept a clean sheet on that particular front for more than 15 years, but that changed when Jontay Porter was hit with a lifetime ban in 2024 for tipping off gamblers who were able to harness prop bets to capitalize after he used a lingering injury as an excuse to pull himself out of games.
Those bets were also at the center of the suspicious betting patterns that led to Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups being implicated in a federal gambling investigation in 2025 (the former had previously been cleared by the league after it conducted an investigation of its own, and he’s pleaded not guilty ahead of a trial scheduled to begin in 2027).
It was pretty clear something needed to change in the wake of those developments, and that will be the case after the league rolled out some new policies concerning the bets sportsbooks are allowed to accept.
The NBA has placed restrictions on certain bets in an effort to crack down on illegal gambling
Some sportsbooks stopped listing certain types of prop bets after Porter was charged, and according to ESPN, the ones that have an official partnership with the league will be required to abide by a new policy that’s been introduce out ahead of the 2026-27 season.
Wagers that involved an under on individual stats were the biggest culprit due to their ability to be exploited by an “injury” early in a game, and people who use DraftKings and FanDuel will no longer be allowed to include them in a parlay.
There are some additional microbets that will no longer be permitted, including the winner of the opening tip and winner wagers on “players to miss specific shots.” There will also be restrictions on unders for guys who primarily ride the bench, as no bets of that type can be accepted for a player who’s expected to play less than 12 minutes.
The NBA has been subjected to a fair amount of criticism for profiting from its partnership with the gambling platforms that have essentially facilitated the scandals its been rocked by, so while it may not beat the hypocrisy allegations by continuing to work with them, this certainly seems like a step in the right direction.