Zona de Azar USA – NCAA President Aims to Restrict College Sports Betting
USA.- June 12, 2024 www.zonadeazar.com It is almost impossible for sports fans to avoid the prevalence of sports betting in today’s world with advertisements, sponsorships and more, and NCAA President Charlie Baker is tired of it.
“This all has to stop,” he said Monday, per Bryan Fischer of Fox Sports. “So far we’ve managed to work with four states to shut down prop betting on college sports.”
He also said, “I wish sports betting had just stayed in Las Vegas.”
Baker specifically highlighted the dangers of it with college sports and said, “it is far more challenging for young people to avoid it,” per college sports insider Matt Brown.
This is not a new concern for the NCAA president, as he previously called for the ban of prop bets for college games.
“Sports betting issues are on the rise across the country with prop bets continuing to threaten the integrity and competition and leading to student athletes and professional athletes getting harassed,” Baker said in March, per ESPN. “The NCAA has been working with states to deal with these threats and many are responding by banning college prop bets.”
Some states have taken that step.
In April, David Ubben of The Athletic reported Louisiana will ban sportsbooks from offering prop bets on college athletics. The ban will go into effect on Aug. 1 of this year.
Louisiana joins Vermont, Ohio and Maryland as states that have recently banned college prop bets, and Ubben noted Colorado, Arizona, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and Oregon all prohibit them. What’s more, Illinois, Connecticut and Iowa don’t allow gamblers to place prop bets for college games involving in-state teams.
This all comes as gambling remains a major storyline across the entire sports world.
From the investigation into Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, to the NBA banning Jontay Porter to Major League Baseball banning Tucupita Marcano, sports gambling has made plenty of headlines of late.
It has also touched the college sports world with players at Iowa and Iowa State among those investigated for gambling.
As Baker said in March, there is also concern with individuals being targeted and harassed with prop bets specifically, as those place their singular performances under more of a spotlight.
While gambling isn’t going anywhere when it comes to college sports, as evidenced by the American Gaming Association estimating that more than $2.7 billion was wagered on March Madness this year, controlling prop bets could at least mitigate some of the harassment concerns.
It will remain yet another issue for college sports to navigate along with the transfer portal, NIL opportunities, expanding the College Football Playoff and more, but Baker isn’t pleased with the prevalence of gambling at this point.
Edited by: @MaiaDigital www.zonadeazar.com