NBA orders sportsbooks to drop prop bets for 2026-27
The league says it is balancing integrity concerns against the risk of pushing bettors towards illegal operators.
Key Takeaways
- The NBA has imposed a ban on markets including parlays built on multiple statistics for the same player, opening tip winner, players missing specific shots, and unders on players expected to play fewer than 12 minutes. It will impose the limits through its commercial agreements.
- Executive VP Scott Kaufman-Ross told ESPN the league wants to remove problematic bets without pushing activity to the illegal market. The NBA estimates its partners account for more than 99 per cent of the US sports betting market.
US.- The NBA has instructed its authorised sportsbook partners to stop offering several types of bets for the 2026-27 season, including parlays built around multiple statistics for the same player. The restrictions, detailed in a league memo distributed to operators on Friday, also cover bets on the opening tip winner, players missing specific shots and under wagers on players expected to play fewer than 12 minutes.
The NBA can impose restrictions on markets offered by its authorised operators through its commercial agreements. The league estimates those partners account for more than 99 per cent of the US sports betting market. It said the measures aim to restrain betting markets that could be exploited without pushing customers towards illegal operators.
“There’s a balance between ensuring that we are removing problematic bet types but also ensuring that we don’t just move activity into the illegal market,” NBA executive vice president Scott Kaufman-Ross told ESPN. “And where we landed right now, we think, is the right balance of those two objectives.”
The NBA said it considered the broader betting landscape, including prediction markets, when setting the restrictions. However, it has not announced formal partnerships with prediction market operators, and Kaufman-Ross acknowledged that enforcing the rules on those platforms could be more difficult without agreements in place.
