Charlie Baker, NCAA reveal effort to ban prop bets for all college sporting events

Betting has become a hot-button topic in sports. Now, the NCAA is looking to limit the types of bets that can be placed on college sports, with NCAA President Charlie Baker seeking to remove college prop bets from all betting markets.

Now, Baker has released a statement about why the NCAA is seeking to end prop bets on college athletics.

“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 being harassed,” Baker said in the statement. “The NCAA has been working with states to deal with these threats and many are responding by banning college prop bets.”

With sports betting on the rise, the NCAA is acting to protect student-athletes from harassment and working to protect the integrity of the game – this week shows why it’s so important to act. pic.twitter.com/krATwpS4hZ

— NCAA News (@NCAA_PR) March 27, 2024

“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.”

This comes after the Ohio Casino Control Commission (OCCC) granted a request in February by the NCAA to prohibit wagering on prop bets. Sportsbooks in the state had until the start of March to implement the change for college athletics.

At the time, that was a decision that Charlie Baker called “a significant step in the protection of student-athlete well-being and game integrity.”

Prop bets are bets based on whether or not something is going to happen during the course of a game. An example of that could be whether or not a particular player has a rushing touchdown in a football game. Another example would be whether or not a basketball player scores more than a certain number of points over the course of a game.

In professional sports, there have been several recent gambling scandals. That includes MLB investigating superstar Shohei Ohtani for money sent to an illegal bookie, apparently for his translator. Then, in the NBA, Toronto Raptors center Jontay Porter is being investigated over “betting irregularities” related to prop bets on him.

This also comes less than a season after Alabama baseball coach Brad Bohannon was fired amid a betting scandal. The NCAA has since levied a 15-year show-cause penalty against Bohannon, showing how serious the NCAA is when it comes to coaches who are gambling with insider information and hurting the integrity of the competition.