«This is an opportune time to carefully reassess how sports betting should be regulated and how sports leagues can best protect themselves, their players, and their fans.”
«This is an opportune time to carefully reassess how sports betting should be regulated and how sports leagues can best protect themselves, their players, and their fans.”
The NBA, in reaction to the arrests of Miami guard Terry Rozier and Portland coach Chauncey Billups last week for their alleged role in gambling schemes, has started a review of how the league can protect not just the integrity of the game but its players and coaches as well.
The league made those revelations in a memo sent to all 30 teams, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.
“Given the spread of legal betting to the majority of U.S. states, the recurrence of integrity issues across sports, and the emergence of novel betting formats and markets, this is an opportune time to carefully reassess how sports betting should be regulated and how sports leagues can best protect themselves, their players, and their fans,” read the memo, sent by the NBA’s legal department.
Meanwhile, the quest for answers has reached lawmakers in Washington with the Senate on Monday following a request from a House committee last week in asking the NBA for information.
Sen. Ted Cruz, the Republican chairman of the Commerce Committee, and Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on that panel, want information “about how the NBA investigated and handled these allegations as well as what steps the Association is taking to maintain the public’s trust.”
Their specific questions revolve around why the league’s probe of Rozier and the events surrounding a March 23, 2023 game when he was with the Charlotte Hornets.
“This Committee needs to understand the specifics of the NBA’s investigation and why Rozier was cleared to continue playing basketball,” Cruz and Cantwell wrote.
