The NFL is engaging with state lawmakers, regulators and its sports betting partners in an attempt to better enforce rules on player-based prop bets following recent betting controversies across professional sports. In a memo sent to all 32 teams and obtained by The Athletic, the league detailed restrictions on bets tied to player injuries, officiating, single-player plays — such as a kicker missing a field goal — and pre-determined outcomes.
The league says it’s working to limit, and where possible prohibit, prop bets in the NFL. The prohibitions outlined in the memo are not new and were in place before recent news events, a league source confirmed to The Athletic. According to the memo, prop bets involving injuries, fan safety, officiating (including penalties and replays), plays determined solely by one player and pre-determined outcomes directly related to on-field competition (such as will a QB start this week? Will the team’s first play from scrimmage be a run or pass) are prohibited.
The memo was essentially a reminder to teams about what prop bets are banned. The league source would not share which, if any, other prop bets might be considered for prohibition. It is unclear what other steps the NFL is taking to limit prop bets.
No sport drives more wagering in the United States than the NFL, which remains the centerpiece of the country’s legal betting market. NFL bettors were expected to wager approximately $30 billion on the league this season with legal sportsbooks in the United States, according to an estimate released by the American Gaming Association. Two years ago, at Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, 68 million Americans wagered $23.1 billion. Americans wagered an estimated $1.39 billion on last year’s Super Bowl between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs.
Other leagues have become embroiled in betting controversies, though, which likely prompted the league’s steps. In Major League Baseball, Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were indicted on a host of charges tied to allegedly rigging pitches thrown during games.
Clase allegedly threw rigged pitches on the first pitch of an at-bat, typically throwing pitches well outside the strike zone, even in the dirt, to ensure it wouldn’t be called a strike. He allegedly received on occasion “bribes and kickbacks from the bettors,” federal prosecutors said, and “sometimes provided money to the bettors in advance to fund the scheme.”
MLB subsequently capped pitch-level bets at $200 and barred them from parlays under new rules made with major sportsbooks, the league announced Monday.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who had been adamant in encouraging MLB to ban micro-bets, said, “I urge other sports leagues to follow Major League Baseball’s example with similar action,” in the league’s release.
In the NBA last month, federal investigators arrested several people for allegedly sharing inside information. Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups was implicated in an indictment for allegedly sitting star players and informing a bettor about the decision before games.
The NFL has avoided any major gambling scandals over the past two seasons. The last suspensions the league handed out for betting were in 2023, when it suspended 10 players for violating gambling policies. In Thursday’s memo, the league outlined several rules for NFL personnel to follow in regards to gambling.
Personnel were instructed to never bet on the NFL, not to have family or friends bet for them, not to gamble at teams’ facilities or while traveling, not to share insider information and not to enter a sportsbook during the NFL playing season, among other rules.
Yet players have still faced fan criticism over gambling-related matters. New York Giants kicker Graham Gano recently said that fans have sent him death threats over his play. Gano, who’s been in the league since 2009 and seen the league’s betting rules be reshaped, said “nobody wants to hear that stuff.”
“Ever since sports betting started happening, I get people telling me to kill myself every week,” Gano said. “Because I’ll hit a kick that loses them money. I’ll miss a kick, and it loses them money. It was the other day, somebody told me to get cancer and die.”