One of the busiest times of the year for sports betting sites is nearly upon us — March Madness — but the National Collegiate Athletic Association is pleased that a growing number of states are taking certain wagering markets off the menu.
That is something the NCAA wants to see more of, as the college sports sanctioning body continues its campaign to get lawmakers and regulators to beef up protections for student-athletes who may be targeted by abusive bettors.
Those efforts have led to recent wins in states such as Ohio, Maryland, and Vermont, which banned wagering on college player props with and without prodding from the NCAA. West Virginia lawmakers also passed a bill earlier this month that would ban people from sports betting if they harass athletes, similar to legislation already in effect in Ohio.
“The NCAA is doing more than ever before to protect student-athletes and the competition integrity from sports betting and would like to see all states ban individual performance prop bets on college competitions from their books,” spokesperson Massillon Myers said in an email. “The NCAA is thrilled to see multiple states take action to remove these bets and the Association will continue to work with every state that wants to learn more about how to protect student-athletes and officials from harassment.”
A growing trend
The college player prop bans might irk bettors, but they have caught on, as a majority of states do not allow such markets. That is partly because a dozen states have not legalized sports betting at all, but also because some of those that have authorized wagering have opted to exclude, limit, or later prohibit individual player wagering.
In Florida, the largest state with legalized sports betting, there are no college player prop markets at all. That is because the gaming agreement struck in 2021 by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Seminole Tribe — the only authorized operator of sports betting in the state — says that legal wagering does not include prop bets on college events.
College player props are also off the menu in New York, the biggest competitive market for online sports betting in the U.S. Meanwhile, NCAA president Charlie Baker hails from Massachusetts, which legalized sports betting in 2022 but excluded college player prop betting from the bill that Baker himself ultimately signed.
The ban blueprint
Even so, that leaves around 20 states that allow college player prop betting in some form, including North Carolina, which launched mobile wagering earlier this month. A spokesperson for the regulator there, the North Carolina State Lottery Commission, told Covers on Tuesday that neither their sports betting nor legal team had been contacted by the NCAA about college player props.
States may still ban college player props without any direct urging from the NCAA, as was done in Maryland and Vermont.
Ohio Casino Control Commission executive director Matthew Schuler may have even provided the case for others to follow suit in his letter approving the NCAA’s request for a ban, noting that college player prop wagering was only 1.35% of Ohio’s overall sportsbook handle during 2023.
“The NCAA has shown good cause to support its request to prohibit player-specific prop bets on NCAA collegiate events in Ohio,” Schuler wrote. “While I recognize that there may be a small negative impact to operator and tax revenue, the protection of student-athletes and the integrity of collegiate competitions far outweigh these impacts.”
