Bleacher Report recently published a lengthy article suggesting that many might soon be wagering on NBA prop bets nightly “should sports betting become federally legalized throughout the U.S. and the NBA develops a wagering structure for fans in arenas and at home”. What??? Sources involved with the situation stated that the NBA has been in recent negotiations with several global sports betting companies, which include but are not limited to Bwin.party and William Hill.
On what news or information is the NBA basing this fantasy view of the future where legal online sports betting from home is a reality in America? Surely none of the NBA owners share this unrealistically optimistic view, right? Wrong! “It’s pretty simple—just look around the world to see where betting is legal,” Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told Bleacher Report. “That’s what we will be doing, and then as technology gets better, we will invent new things.”
What Bizarro World version of the NBA is this? For more than two decades—after Congress passed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in 1992 prohibiting almost all states from authorizing sports betting—the league has opposed the expansion of legalized sports betting. To say the NBA has reversed its position is a gross understatement.
Let’s hope the NBA and its forward thinking owners are right. And let’s face is – when is Mark Cuban ever wrong?
CLARK.LAW
