When Week 1 of the 2024 college football season kicks off Thursday, only a few states where college player prop betting was recently legal won’t have it available this season.
Citing harassment concerns, NCAA president Charlie Baker urged legislatures and regulators in the spring to ban wagers on individual statistics, like how many points a basketball player will score or passing yards for a quarterback.
Only Maryland, Ohio, Vermont, and Louisiana have complied with the request since then.
“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. “The NCAA has been working with states to deal with these threats and many are responding by banning college prop bets.”
Louisiana was the last state to enact a ban, which went into effect Aug. 1.
Where and where not
Of the 38 legal sports betting states, 22 allow college player prop wagering in some fashion. Several markets don't permit betting on any in-state schools, including New Jersey, Iowa, Illinois, Florida, and Washington, D.C., but do allow those prop wagers on out-of-state teams.
New York, the most lucrative sports betting market in the U.S., doesn’t allow college player props. Neither do Massachusetts or Pennsylvania.
Nevada, where retail sports betting thrives, does allow player props.
Some states have looked into college player prop bans, but not much came of it during the summer.
Wyoming evaluated a couple of options but determined in July to table the discussion for another date.
A bill banning those college props was introduced in New Jersey following Baker’s statements. The bill will be up for discussion during the 2024-25 legislative session.
In North Carolina, a state that launched online sports betting in March, a legislator attempted to ban college player props. Rep. Marcia Morey (D-Durham), a former college athlete and Olympian, posed a bill for this year’s shortened session, but the attempt was argued against by other legislators and not passed this year.
Taking a stand
Baker took his stance against college player props during the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, some of the most-wagered sporting events in the U.S.
The NCAA also hired a third-party company to monitor social media sites and look for harassment of student-athletes.
College football is a major boon for sportsbooks, so it’s likely Baker will continue his crusade this fall when people are listening.
“The NCAA is drawing the line on sports betting to protect student-athletes and to protect the integrity of the game – issues across the country these last several days show there is more work to be done,” Baker said in March.
Running into issues
Baker’s urging is backed up by athletes claiming harassment. During the NCAA tournament, North Carolina star Armando Bacot said he received “probably 100 DMs [telling me I sucked]” after he missed his rebound total in a game.
“This all has to stop,” Baker said in June.
The NCAA president dealt with sports betting scandals in his first year on the job, including Iowa and Iowa State athletes placing illegal wagers and former Alabama baseball coach Brad Bohannon getting fired and punished by the NCAA for relaying pitching information to an individual inside a sportsbook.
A highly publicized NBA betting scandal didn’t seem to spur changes before football season either. Jontay Porter, a former Toronto Raptors center, was banned from the league in April after he bet on NBA games and manipulated playing time to aid known bettors and associates wagering on his player props.
Big business
College player props are good business for sportsbooks and the entire industry.
Daily fantasy sites like Underdog and PrizePicks currently operate in U.S. states without legal sports betting, offering various contests that involve college player props.
JMP Securities reported earlier this year that a complete ban on college player props would cost the sports betting industry $200 million.
“At the end of the day, bettors will find a way to wager on events and players, and we believe the effort to ban individual player betting will likely only push players back offshore, while we estimate over 50% of wagers today are in the United States,” the report stated.
