Adam Silver Advocates for More Regulation in Sports Betting
The NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, has highlighted the need for greater regulation in sports betting. Silver, who has been a strong advocate for the legalization of sports betting in the United States, spoke about the importance of these measures to protect the integrity of the game and the experience of the fans. During his appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show”, Silver emphasized that greater regulation is crucial to reduce opportunities for match manipulation related to betting and to combat inappropriate behavior by fans in the stadiums, which could be influenced by betting. Silver mentioned the NBA’s efforts to reduce betting options on players with two-way contracts. In the summer of 2024, the league asked its sports betting partners to refrain from offering bets on the performance of these players, after Jontay Porter, former Toronto Raptors player, was found manipulating his performance in several games during the 2023-24 season as part of a betting scheme. Silver banned Porter from the NBA.Silver also noted that bets on the individual performance of players can lead to player abuse by fans, even when their team wins.“We have asked some of our partners to remove some of the bets, especially when it comes to two-way players, guys who don’t have the same involvement in the competition, where it’s too easy to manipulate something, which otherwise seems small and inconsequential to the overall score. We are trying to implement, learning on the go and working with the bookmakers, an additional control to prevent some of that manipulation.”
Adam Silver
The NBA sent a memo to teams last week, emphasizing the need for consistent and vigilant enforcement of the NBA Fan Code of Conduct to deter and address fan misconduct at NBA games and events. In 2014, Silver published an opinion article advocating for a new approach to sports betting, including federal regulation. At the time, state-sponsored sports betting was primarily only permitted in Nevada. Eleven years later, 39 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have launched legal betting markets.“It often happens that your team wins and a player scores 25 points, but the fan, the bettor, had bet that the player was going to score 28 or 30 points. We have to protect the competitors. We want to protect the atmosphere in the stadium from people getting out of control.”
Adam Silver
Silver added that the regulated market allows for greater visibility of bets, who makes them and from where. “With this regulated structure of legalized betting, we can monitor it in ways that were unimaginable years ago. If there is any abnormal behavior: people betting large amounts who historically hadn’t, simply opening an account to place bets, or even geolocation, we know exactly where the bets are placed from, very specifically. If you are in a stadium and place a bet, in many cases we know you are in the stadium. We know where in the stadium you are when you place that bet.”“I probably think there should be more regulation, frankly. I wish there was federal legislation instead of state by state. I think you have to monitor the amount of promotion, the amount of advertising that surrounds it.”
Adam Silver
