Adam Silver Says NBA Only Has 'So Much Control' Over Sports Betting Sites Offering Props

After recent news surrounding the possibility of the best sports betting sites banning prop bets in college sports, NBA commissioner Adam Silver addressed the likelihood of professional basketball following suit.

Silver said during Monday's Associated Press Sports Editors Commissioners Conference that the league has less influence than people think when it comes to the offerings at the best NBA betting sites.

"We only have so much control," Silver said. "For example, the NCAA has made the point about the risk to college players. There's a large pool of players in college whose careers will end after they participate in college athletics, so there's not as much at stake. There's clearly a lot more at stake for a superstar player than there is for a two-way player.”

Why the NBA is addressing this issue

Silver's comments follow the recent lifetime ban of Toronto Raptors big man Jontay Porter. The 24-year-old was found to have violated various league gambling policies - including disclosing confidential information to sports bettors, limiting his own participation in one or more games for betting purposes, and betting on NBA games, including betting on the Raptors to lose.

“Certainly, prop bets, depending on how precise they are, lend themselves to more shenanigans than other kinds of bets,” Silver said. “Now, some of that can be captured through various monitoring, but we also recognize that a large amount of the handle - I'm not sure the precise percentage - but my hunch is there's still far more illegal (betting) than legal.

"There are limits to our control, but we think there should be a regulated framework, where it's the leagues working together with the state oversight groups and the betting companies, whether or not we have partnerships with them.”

Are changes on the horizon?

Silver has mostly pushed for regulatory measures more so than removing props from the best sports betting apps, as has been the case in the college landscape. He appears more concerned with protecting the integrity of the NBA than limiting bettors' ability to access certain markets.

Considering the way Silver described the relative lack of influence the NBA has over what the best sportsbooks do, it's more likely he's targeting some form of collaborative effort with them.

“In some cases, we have partnerships with, just take DraftKings and FanDuel, where we don't have absolute control, but when we have a marketing partnership with those companies we have a lot more say than with companies where we have no partnership whatsoever,” Silver said. “Then we're relying on them doing a broader-based concern about integrity in the industry and them not running afoul of the regulators."

However, the NBA could take more drastic measures specifically related to two-way players. The league has reportedly considered working with the sites with the best sportsbook promos to prevent bets on players signed to two-way contracts.

There has also been speculation that the NBA could try to ban Unders on player props, as an extreme measure.