Betting Inside the League

Basketball has always been my biggest hobby, and it’s always been a big part of my life. I did consider trying to make it big and having it as a job but genetics has blessed me with the amazing height of 5 foot 9. A big part of basketball these days is betting for whichever team you think will win, and earning money off of it. Betting in the NBA was mostly banned for the longest time. In 1949, Nevada was the only state that allowed any type of betting in the NBA and other leagues. In 1992, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) which banned sports betting in almost every state, and froze the current market in Nevada. In 2018 it was overturned in Murphy v. NCAA declaring the federal ban unconstitutional and giving every state the power to legalize betting. Almost right after the NBA started making deals and partnerships to get commercial tie-ins. Their first partnership was with MGM Resorts in August of 2018, followed by deals with DraftKings and FanDuel.

One of the first scandals with sports betting was when it started happening inside of the league, players were betting on themselves, and then performing perfectly to make money for themselves or other people. One of the first instances of this was with Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier. In October of 2025, he and 6 other defendants, were arrested involving a betting scandal in 2023 while Rozier was with the Charolette Hornets. Other info from ESPN.com says he took a $100k bribe to sit out a game for betting reasons, and he used the excuse of a leg injury. Over $280k were bet on his statistics, and him sitting out put the bettors on the under, making them win a lot of money. This isn’t the only time an NBA player has bet against themselves, and made bettors a ton of money, but it also gets them banned or in big trouble with authorities.

Another example of when something like this happened was in 2024, when an NBA referee named Tim Donaghy was betting on games that he was officiating, so he could change calls or twist fouls so his parlays would hit and he would make extra money. Another recent scandal was with Jontay Porter in 2024 while he was playing for the raptors. He would tell bettors to bet under his average, and then he would underperform on purpose to be able to make those people money.

This matters a lot to not just the NBA but all of the professional sports world. Games are starting to be less about enjoying it and wanting your team to win, and more about who can make you the most money. It means a lot to me because sports betting is taking away the real competitiveness of the sport, and that’s everyone’s favorite part. If we can limit peoples gambling addictions and stop gambling inside of the league. Sports betting can also be very dangerous because sports books are run to collect profit, meaning overtime you will most likely lose more than you win, and trying to win back losses usually makes you go deeper into debt.