NBA commissioner Adam Silver, the first acting professional league commissioner to come out in support of legalizing sports betting in the United States, said Tuesday that more regulation is needed to reduce opportunities for game manipulation related to gambling and to combat bad fan behavior in arenas, which may stem from losing wagers.
Appearing on “The Pat McAfee Show,” Silver pointed to the NBA’s efforts to reduce betting options on players on two-way contracts. In the summer of 2024, the NBA asked its sportsbook partners to refrain from offering prop bets on players on two-way contracts to underperform, after Jontay Porter, formerly of the Toronto Raptors, was found to have manipulated his performance in multiple games during the 2023-24 season as part of a gambling scheme.
