NBA to reinforce gambling policies

The sports league is preparing extra resources as legalised gambling expands in the US.

US.- NBA COO and Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum has revealed that the league is preparing to double down on policing its players, teams and staff as legalised sports betting expands in the United States.

Tatum revealed that the league has been working non-stop ever since the US Supreme Court lifted the federal ban on sports betting in June 2018 in order to take advantage of the possibilities that it brings and the threats around the issue. The COO said that the ruling brings extra resources to the table to prevent in-house infractions, ESPN revealed.

”We’re spending a lot of time learning from the mistakes that were made and what we’re seeing in sports betting in places around the world. We’re trying to educate our fans. We’re educating our players and our teams. We’re taking a little bit of a cautious approach here… but generally, we think it’s a good thing for sports betting to be regulated, to be legalised, so there is better information being captured,” said Tatum.

The NBA, which has already set a deal with Sportradar to provide information and flag anomalies in games, has sought advice from other leagues, such as the English Premier League. Tatum said that how the soccer league from the UK manages a balance between revenue and responsibility has been observed.

“That really helped inform some of our thoughts on how sports betting could work in the United States. We’re seeing a large shift now and a change in the landscape of sports betting in the US” Tatum said. “We’ve gone to school on them. We’ve actually shared a lot of information with them and have a great partnership with them.”