Achi news desk-
The NCAA wants states with legal wagers on sporting events to ban prop bets on college athletes.
“Sports betting issues are on the rise across the country with prop bets continuing to threaten the integrity of competition and lead to harassment of student-athletes,” Baker said Wednesday in a statement posted on social media. “The NCAA has been working with states to deal with these threats and many are responding by banning college prop bets.”
Prop bets – short for proposition bets – allow gamblers to bet on statistics that a player will accumulate during a match rather than the final score.
Baker’s statement came two days after the NBA confirmed it had opened an investigation into unusual betting patterns around props involving Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter. The Raptors said Porter would miss his third straight game Wednesday for personal reasons.
NBA players and coaches have been outspoken in recent days about the issue of prop bets, and how gamblers react when certain numbers are not hit during a game. Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton said his social media is full of complaints and Cleveland Cavaliers coach JB Bickerstaff revealed he received threats from gamblers last season and reported it to the NBA.
Earlier this month, US Integrity, a company used by many professional sports leagues and college conferences to monitor betting activity, flagged the Temple basketball game for wagering irregularities.
The NCAA has already made some progress in pushing for the elimination of prop bets on college athletes. Gaming regulators in Ohio, Vermont and Maryland have eliminated prop betting on college athletes online and at sports books. Baker and his staff are reaching out to regulators in other states to urge similar bans.
The NCAA is in the middle of the March Madness basketball tournaments and for the sixth year in a row the number of states with legal gambling has increased, with North Carolina recently becoming 38th. The American Gaming Association estimates that $2.7 billion will be wagered this year on the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments through legal sportsbooks.
Companies that monitor sports betting for irregularities have warned college sports administrators that prop betting on unpaid athletes increases the potential risk for scandal because players can more easily influence their own performance than the overall outcome of a game .
The NCAA conducted a survey after last year’s basketball tournaments and found that 58% of 18- to 22-year-olds gambled.
Baker has said the proliferation of legal sports gambling has increased stress on college athletes.
“All that chatter about who’s playing, who’s not playing. Who is sore, who is not sore. What’s going on with the team you play? What do you think your chances are? Which is just a classic chat, where – in a world where people are betting – takes on a whole new outcome,” Baker said in January before his address to membership at the NCAA convention.
The NCAA has partnered with a data science company called Signify, which also works with the NBA Players Association and WNBA, to identify threats made to athletes online during championship events that are often associated with wagering.
“Basically tracking ugly, nasty things that are directed at people who participate in their tournaments and we would use it the same way,” Baker said in January. “And it can basically shut it down or block it. And in some cases even trace back to where it came from. “
In October, the NCAA announced it would advocate for state lawmakers to update laws to address harassment of athletes, coaches and game officials and to strengthen integrity protections.
In West Virginia, NCAA officials worked with lawmakers to pass a bill that would allow betting regulators to ban people from in-state wagering online or at sports books if they were found to have harassed players, coaches or officials on -online or in person. The bill is awaiting signature from Gov. Jim Justice.
San Diego State basketball coach Brian Dutcher said he worries about how all the negative feedback is affecting athletes’ mental health.
“People are complaining about how they’re playing, missing shots, and they’re constantly getting beat,” said Dutcher, whose team plays in the Sweet 16 in Boston this week.
San Diego State guard Desai Lopez said he has received direct messages via social media with complaints about his play.
“You know, people are betting all over the place,” he said. “So if they want to do that, that’s on them. I don’t think it should cause stress for the players, though.”
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AP Sports Writers Tim Reynolds in Miami and Jimmy Golen and Kyle Hightower in Boston contributed to this report.
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AP March Madness Bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – Associated Press)
