Why the NCAA’s push to ban prop bets on college sports has merit despite an uphill battle nationwide

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HENDERSON, Nev. — Matt Holt pecked his keyboard, quickly calling up information to make his point. His screen lit up with wagering information regarding a late-season Monday Night Football game. Listed were approximately 3,000 prop bets. Proposition bets are micro-wagers that can be placed on everything from how long it takes a vocalist to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” to how many 3-pointers are made in the first 5 minutes of a basketball game.

They are also the scourge of the NCAA because their existence is potentially harmful to athletes. As the association sees it, prop bets take the illegal gambling influence away from a team and center it on one player or small group of players.

“One of the easier things [illegal betting operations] can do is influence player props,” Holt told CBS Sports.

As the Final Four tips off in Glendale, Arizona, this week, Holt is there at the center of it all as the president and founder of U.S. Integrity, a suburban-Las Vegas firm that specializes in sports integrity monitoring. He is also a consultant for the Power Five conferences on such matters.

Holt explained how college football prop bets could be manipulated.

“[If you want to influence] passing yards, passing touchdowns, you … run the ball instead of throwing. Receiving yards? You just don’t throw to that receiver,” he said.

Sometimes, it’s that simple. An unscrupulous bettor needs only one or a handful of players to make an impact in football. The history of betting scandals in college basketball is vast. A series of game-fixing scandals in the early 1950s led the NCAA to create its enforcement division.

Today, the new gambling climate across the United States scares the wits out of those in the college space. While prop bets rarely have much to do with the final score, their existence can put undue pressure on individual athletes.

Last week, NCAA president Charlie Baker urged states to…

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Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/why-the-ncaas-push-to-ban-prop-bets-on-college-sports-has-merit-despite-an-uphill-battle-nationwide/

Author : Dennis Dodd

Publish date : 2024-04-04 18:36:46

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