The NBA persuaded major U.S. sportsbooks to “stop offering ‘under’ prop bets on the league’s lowest-paid players” after it banned Raptors C Jontay Porter and now it is “time for MLB to consider a similar intervention, perhaps on single-pitch prop bets,” according to Ira Boudway of BLOOMBERG NEWS. If leagues and sportsbooks do not “voluntarily adopt such restrictions,” states may have to “consider imposing them.” Several states “already have limits on player props for college sports.” Extending prop bans to the professional ranks “could help deter corruption” and give fans “greater confidence in the integrity of games.” After MLB placed Guardians P Luis Ortiz and P Emmanuel Clase on leave, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine “called on his state’s gaming regulator to ban props across the board.” He also said that he would “urge the commissioners of MLB, the NFL, the NBA, the WNBA, the NHL and MLS to support his efforts.” Player props are “popular with bettors and sportsbooks alike,” so banning props at regulated U.S. sportsbooks “doesn’t mean they’ll cease to exist.” If enough bettors want them, “offshore and black-market bookies will offer them.” Bets on increments “as small as a single pitch” do not seem “especially necessary to the business models of sportsbooks or the habits of most bettors.” The “trick” for leagues, sportsbooks and regulators is “to get the balance right.” Players “need to know the risks.” Boudway: “They need to know that monitors from IC360 and elsewhere are watching and that their fixing schemes are likely to be exposed” (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 8/8).
