(NewsNation) — Major sports leagues are working with sportsbooks to tighten rules around prop bets after a string of gambling scandals involving star players in baseball, football and basketball.
These play-specific bets have repeatedly been linked to schemes that compromise game integrity.
Still, sportsbooks aren’t likely to drop them completely. Prop bets are highly profitable, accounting for about 30% of all wagers, or roughly $45 billion, of bets and parlays annually in the U.S.
Unlike bets on who wins a particular game, prop bets are wagers on specific players or team moments, such as point totals or a pitcher hitting a certain mark.
Gambling scandals hit MLB and NBA
Gambling scandals have long shadowed professional sports.
Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were recently charged in a federal scheme, accused of rigging individual pitches for bettors. Clase now faces the possibility of decades in prison and a lifetime ban from Major League Baseball.
Last month, Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were among 34 people charged in a sweeping investigation into illegal sports betting and alleged Mafia-backed poker schemes.
Experts say these scandals are being caught now because monitoring is far more intense than in the past.
MLB, NFL working to restrict riskiest prop bets
Matthew Bakowicz, an American University Kogod School of Business professor who has managed sportsbook operations for DraftKings at Foxwoods Casino, notes that legal, regulated betting gives leagues better tools to protect the integrity of the game.
“When you have legal, structured, integrity-based systems watching the game as opposed to offshore books or things that fly under the radar or illegal betting, you don’t have the enforcement of keeping the game at a high level and a high-integrity structure,” he said.
Bakowicz said prop bets boost fan engagement and have become a part of the fabric of sports betting. But he said leagues need strict rules and harsh penalties for anyone who crosses the line.
To reduce risk, leagues are working with sportsbooks to rein in the riskiest prop picks while keeping their betting partnerships intact.
Pitch-specific “micro-bets” are now capped at $200 and are barred from parlays, since they’re the easiest to manipulate, and some props, such as a quarterback’s first pass being incomplete, are now off-limits.