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NBA reviewing prop bets, injury reporting, AI to track bet
The National Basketball Association told its 30 teams on Monday that it was instituting a broad review of betting-related issues to “protect the integrity of the NBA and our affiliated leagues” in the wake of a bombshell federal indictment that alleges confidential information about players was leaked to gamblers.
In particular, the review will focus on proposition bets offered by legal online sports bookies, which allow gamblers to wager on the statistical performance of individual players, according to a memo from the NBA to its teams, which CNBC obtained.
In addition to prop bets, the league will also review how player injuries are reported publicly, and explore ways to improve the use of artificial intelligence and other tools to identify betting patterns that suggest gamblers have access to inside information about players and teams, according to the memo.
The memo, from NBA General Counsel Rick Buchanan and Dan Spillane, the league’s executive vice president in charge of governance and policy, was addressed to the NBA’s board of governors, team presidents, general managers and team counsels.
The six people named in the indictment unsealed last week in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, included Miami Heat player Terry Rozier. Rozier and the others are accused of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.
That indictment says the “defendants and certain co-conspirators had access to private information known by NBA players or NBA coaches, and that this information was shared with others who exploited it to make profitable bets with companies that included FanDuel and DraftKings, the official sports betting partners of the league.
Rozier is accused of tipping off a long-time friend in March 2023 while playing for the Charlotte Hornets, that he planned to leave the game early “due to purported injury.”
The friend and two other men charged in the same indictment then allegedly used that information to make prop bets totaling more than $200,000 that Rozier would underperform in certain areas of play, which could include points scored and assists, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn said Thursday.
Rozier left that game after just nine minutes, “and many of the bets paid off, generating tens of thousands of dollars in profits,” prosecutors said.
Rozier’s lawyer, Jim Trusty, has denied the player engaged in wrongdoing, saying, “Terry is not a gambler, but he is not afraid of a fight, and he looks forward to winning this fight.”
The NBA, in its memo on Monday, said, “While the unusual betting on Terry Rozier’s ‘unders’ in the March 2023 game was detected in real time because the bets were placed legally, we believe there is more that can be done from a legal/regulatory perspective to protect the integrity of the NBA and our affiliated leagues.”
“In particular, proposition bets on individual player performance involve heightened integrity concerns and require additional scrutiny,” the memo said.
“We have also begun a process of reviewing league policies regarding injury reporting, the training and education of all NBA personnel, and safety measures for NBA players,” the memo said.
“With sports betting now occupying such a significant part of the current sports landscape, every effort must be made to ensure that players, coaches, and other NBA personnel are fully aware of the dire risks that gambling can impose upon their careers and livelihoods; that our injury disclosure rules are appropriate; and that players are protected from harassment from bettors,” the memo said.
“We also are exploring ways to enhance our existing internal and external integrity monitoring programs to better utilize AI and other tools to synthesize all available data from betting operators, social media, and other sources to identify betting activity of concern,” the memo said.
Portland Trail Blazers Head Coach Chauncey Billups, who is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player, appears to be an unnamed “Co-conspirator 8” referred to in the same indictment charging Rozier.
Billups is not criminally charged in that case, but details in the indictment describe the NBA playing and coaching career of Co-Conspirator 8, which match those of Billups.
The indictment says that Co-Conspirator 8, in March 2023, told a named defendant in the indictment that the Trail Blazers planned to lose a game against the Chicago Bulls to improve the Trail Blazers’ chances of getting a better pick in the NBA draft.
The Trail Blazers lost that game after people who received the information placed bets with legal online bookmakers totaling about $100,000 that the Trail Blazers would lose, the indictment alleges.
Billups is charged in a separate federal indictment in Brooklyn that accuses him of participating in a scheme with alleged Mafia members to swindle unwitting players in underground poker games out of millions of dollars with high-tech cheating device.
Billups’ lawyer, Chris Heywood, told NBC News last week, “Chauncey Billups has never and would never gamble on basketball games, provide insider information, or sacrifice the trust of his team and the League, as it would tarnish the game he has devoted his entire life to.”
Heywood also denied any wrongdoing by Billups in the poker-related indictment, saying, “Anyone who knows Chauncey Billups knows he is a man of integrity; men of integrity do not cheat and defraud others.”
Both Billups and Rozier were placed on leave from their teams by the NBA after their arrests on Thursday.
In October 2024, after allegations of suspicious betting on the performance of Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter, the NBA directed its gambling partners and other operators to remove prop bets for its lowest-paid players — specifically, those who play on either two-way or 10-day contracts, like Porter had held.
The league said at the time that those players may be more vulnerable to manipulation. Porter pleaded guilty in July 2024 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in Brooklyn federal court.
Matt King, the CEO of Fanatics Betting and Gaming, told CNBC on Monday that the sports book company maintains constant communication with sports leagues on matters of integrity and regulation.
“When the league asked us not to offer props on two-way contract players … we did that immediately,” King said.
“It’s common sense regulation, it’s common sense evolution, and it’s a commonsense decision.”
