Sports betting recently launched in North Carolina but already there are rumblings that a bill will be announced to ban retail and mobile sportsbooks operating in the Tar Heel State from including college player proposition bets on their menus.
Give the Kids a Break
Former Massachusetts governor and current NCAA President, Charlie Baker, has made a public plea to all states offering mobile betting to prohibit sportsbooks from offering college player props. Baker believes betting on college players’ individual performances (over/under on points scored, rebounds, hits, etc..) can lead to harassment of the athlete and could jeopardize the integrity of college sports.
“Sports betting issues are on the rise across the country with prop bets continuing to threaten the integrity of competition and leading to student-athletes and professional athletes getting harassed. The NCAA has been working with states to deal with these threats and many are responding by banning college props bets,” Baker said in a statement earlier this year.
“This week we will be contacting officials across the country in states that still allow these bets and ask them to join Ohio, Vermont, Maryland, and many others and remove college prop bets from all betting markets. 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 added.
New Bill Coming
North Carolina State Representative Marcia Morey, a former Olympic swimmer, was not a proponent of sports betting despite its passage and subsequent launch in the Tar Heel State, agrees with Baker and has announced she will be drafting a bill to eliminate college player props from sportsbooks operating in her state.
“We’re forgetting about the individuals who are actually playing the game and having the pressure on them. Let’s give them a break,” Morey said. “Then to know in the back of your mind, oh well people are going to watch every stroke, every turn, betting on every move I make, it takes away from the thrill of the sport, the enjoyment.”
Ohio, Maryland, and Vermont have all pivoted and will be banning college player props at all of their retail and mobile sportsbooks.
Not Everyone Agrees
Anytime a betting option is removed it means less revenue for the sportsbooks and ultimately the state’s cut of the profits. Therefore, it is understandable why many stakeholders don’t want any change to the status quo in North Carolina’s sports betting industry.
State Representative Jason Saine does not agree that college player prop betting needs to be outlawed.
“I really think this is a solution in search of a problem,” he said. “I hope the campus police are following up on if there were threats, I hope they follow up on that. And these people should be pursued. I think enough people, if an example is made of them, that this is not going to be tolerated, this is not how we function as a civilized society, then that problem takes care of itself.”
Saine went on to say, “But, if we ended it tomorrow, this kind of behavior would still continue with fanatical people. Follow rules of society, you don’t threaten anybody, or you shouldn’t be. And, that’s kind of my take on it. I don’t think we need a whole new set of rules to pursue something like that.”
According to Van Denton, a spokesperson for the NC Education Lottery, the NCAA has not contacted their organization directly regarding the issue.
“If the Commission receives a request from the NCAA to prohibit college player prop bets, it will give such request due consideration as required by the sports betting statute. The roll-out of sports betting in North Carolina has been smooth and successful, in part, due to the careful and deliberate manner in which the Commission has approached its responsibilities. Part of that discipline has been to avoid prematurely signaling the content of proposed rules and/or other actions. As the Commission continues its rulemaking process, it intends to maintain that same posture,” wrote Denton in an email.
