The NBA is taking several player-focused betting markets off the board for the 2026-27 season. The league says these wagers are too easy to manipulate, and the move follows a series of gambling investigations involving current and former players.
Key takeaways
- Same-player under parlays, opening-tip bets and missed-shot props are banned
- Unders on players expected to log under 12 minutes are also removed
- The rules bind NBA-authorised sportsbooks, which hold 99%+ of the US market
- Prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket are not covered
In a memo sent to its sportsbook partners on October 16, the league told authorised operators – including DraftKings and FanDuel – to stop offering parlays that stack several under bets on the same player's stats.
The list goes further. Operators can no longer take bets on who wins the opening tip, on whether a player will miss a specific shot, or on unders for players projected to play fewer than 12 minutes. Alternative under lines with boosted payouts must also be removed.
The NBA can set these limits because its contracts with authorised partners give it a say over which markets they offer. By the league's estimate, those partners cover more than 99% of legal US sports betting.
"There's a balance between ensuring that we are removing problematic bet types but also ensuring that we don't just move activity into the illegal market. And where we landed right now, we think, is the right balance of those two objectives."
— Scott Kaufman-Ross, Executive Vice President, NBA
The Porter and Rozier Cases
The changes come after federal investigations into former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, both connected to suspicious betting on individual player statistics.
Porter admitted that during the 2023-24 season he pulled himself out of games so that bettors could cash in on his statistical unders. In March 2024, one bettor placed an $80,000 parlay on Porter's points, rebounds, assists, three-pointers, steals and blocks in a game against Sacramento, with a potential return of around $1.1 million. Porter played just three minutes. The NBA banned him for life, and he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
In Rozier's case, prosecutors allege that bettors had advance knowledge of his playing time in a March 2023 game between Charlotte and New Orleans. Rozier left after roughly nine minutes, and prosecutors claim those involved bet on his unders after learning he would leave early. Rozier has pleaded not guilty and denies any wrongdoing.
Kaufman-Ross told ESPN that past problems helped shape the new list: "Seeing where we may have had issues in the past is one of the inputs to determining the types of things that we think could be problematic."
After the Porter investigation, the league had already banned under bets on players on two-way contracts. Related court cases have also moved forward: Shane Hennen recently pleaded guilty to federal gambling charges tied to professional and college basketball schemes, and basketball trainer Jalen Smith was sentenced to six years in prison for his part in fixing college games.
Tighter Monitoring and Player Protection
Alongside the market bans, the NBA is stepping up its integrity work. A separate memo to teams describes upgrades to the league's in-house AI-based monitoring platform, which scans betting patterns for anything unusual. Former NFL player and retired FBI agent Charles Tillman will also run in-person training sessions on the league's betting rules.
The league is also doing more to protect players and staff from abuse by gamblers. Its updated fan code of conduct puts more focus on betting-related threats and harassment. Through a partnership with Social Protect, players can sign up for a service that finds and removes abusive social media messages, and a secure text hotline has been set up for reporting threats.
Sportsbook partners have backed the changes. DraftKings said some of the restrictions already match its own practices and repeated its commitment to working with the league on integrity. FanDuel likewise stressed the importance of cooperation between leagues and regulated operators in keeping competition fair.
Prediction Markets Remain a Gap
The new rules do not directly reach prediction market platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket. The NBA has no formal partnerships with them, so it cannot impose contract terms on their sports event markets.
Kaufman-Ross said prediction markets were part of the league's review. The NBA has asked the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to regulate sports event contracts and the integrity risks they carry, and has previously urged the agency to consider limits on player-related markets.
For the coming season, the league will enforce its revised rules through its authorised sportsbook partners while continuing to monitor for suspicious betting across its competitions.
