NBA Bans Same-Player Under Parlays, Covers 99% of Betting

The NBA has told its sportsbook partners to stop offering certain bets this season, including a player-prop parlay format tied to recent betting-fraud cases, according to a league memo obtained by ESPN. The memo, distributed to operators Friday, also restricts wagers on which team wins the opening tip, bets on players missing specific shots, and under bets on players expected to play fewer than 12 minutes in a game.

What bet types does the memo prohibit?

The central change blocks bettors from combining the under on a single player's statistics with other legs in a parlay, ESPN reported. That specific structure — multiple unders tied to one player's box score, bundled into a parlay — has shown up in federal betting-fraud cases involving NBA personnel. The memo also directs operators to drop tip-off winner bets, bets on players missing a named shot, and under bets on players whose expected playing time falls below 12 minutes. The NBA's authorized operators include DraftKings and FanDuel.

Why single out same-player under parlays?

Parlay bets built around a single player's unders appeared in the federal cases involving NBA players Jontay Porter and Terry Rozier, according to ESPN. Porter admitted in court that he intentionally left games early to help bettors cash unders tied to his own statistics. Those cases gave the league a concrete model of how a specific bet structure can be manipulated by a player with access to his own in-game role, rather than relying on outcomes the player cannot control, such as team wins or losses.

NBA executive vice president Scott Kaufman-Ross told ESPN the league weighed two competing goals in drafting the restrictions: "There's a balance between ensuring that we are removing problematic bet types but also ensuring that we don't just move activity into the illegal market. And where we landed right now, we think, is the right balance of those two objectives."

That framing signals the league is not trying to eliminate player-prop betting broadly — a major revenue category for sportsbooks and a product the NBA itself has helped popularize through its licensing deals — but to narrow the specific combinations regulators and league officials consider most exposed to manipulation by a player or insider.

What authority does the NBA have over sportsbooks?

The NBA can restrict what its partner books offer because of agreements between the league and those operators, ESPN reported. The league estimates that its authorized partners account for upward of 99% of the U.S. sports-betting market, giving the memo broad practical reach even though it is a private directive rather than a government rule. State gaming regulators, not the league, hold formal licensing authority over sportsbooks, but operators that want to keep using official NBA data and marketing arrangements have an incentive to comply with league directives.

How have sportsbooks responded?

FanDuel, one of the league's authorized operators, defended the collaborative structure behind the memo. "The legalized sports betting industry is built on a foundation of dialogue and collaboration with our league partners and the states in which we operate," a FanDuel spokesperson told ESPN. "We remain unwavering in our commitment to building a legal and regulated market that roots out abuses by those who seek to undermine fair competition and damage the integrity of the games we love."

The statement frames the restrictions as an extension of existing cooperation between operators, the league and state regulators, rather than a unilateral move the league imposed on resistant partners.

What scandals prompted the restrictions?

The memo follows court cases involving Porter, who admitted to manipulating his own performance to benefit bettors, and Rozier, who faced related federal charges tied to NBA and NCAA fixing schemes, according to ESPN's reporting. Those cases centered on bet types that let someone with inside knowledge of a player's health, workload or in-game role predict an outcome — a player underperforming a statistical line — with far more certainty than an ordinary bettor could. The league's memo targets that exact vulnerability: parlays stacking multiple unders on one player, bets on roles that can be easily manipulated (missing a shot, playing briefly), and the opening tip, an outcome a small number of people could influence without affecting the final score.

The NBA did not say in the memo, as reported by ESPN, whether additional bet types could be added to the restricted list as the season progresses or how compliance will be monitored across partner sportsbooks.