The Ohio Casino Control Commission (OCCC) has decided to prohibit player-specific prop bets in college sports after the president of the NCAA and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine expressed concerns about harassment of individual players.
In a letter to NCAA President Charlie Barker and sports gambling license-holders in Ohio, the OCCC also cites the NCAA’s concerns that player-specific prop bets increase the risk of insider information being leveraged, and of the players betting on or against themselves in coordination with a match-fixer.
Dayton incident casts shadow
Three weeks into the start of legal sports betting in Ohio last year, the University of Dayton Men's Basketball Coach Anthony Grant was forced to address messages of hate received by some of his players from gamblers upset about recent losses. Grant emotionally reminded fans that these are just kids, 18 to 22 years of age.
"This sickens me," said Grant. "They have families. They don't deserve that. Mental health is real."
DeWine cited the incident in lending his support.
“One year into sports gambling in Ohio, we have seen a marketplace develop where a number of bad actors have engaged in unacceptable behavior by making threats against student-athletes in Ohio and across the country,” said DeWine. “By amending rules to focus bets on the team and away from individual athletes, I believe we can improve the marketplace in Ohio and better protect student-athletes from unnecessary and potentially harmful threats.”
NCAA President Charlie Baker echoed the governor's call for change.
“The data is clear that student-athletes are getting harassed by bettors. Sports betting without appropriate controls poses real risks to the well-being of student-athletes and to the integrity of collegiate competition – risks which are heightened by individual prop bets,” he said. “On behalf of the thousands of student-athletes, administrators and game officials in Ohio, I thank Governor DeWine for acting quickly to protect student-athletes and game integrity while responsibly regulating the growing sports betting industry in Ohio.”
“I absolutely support Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and NCAA President Charlie Baker and their efforts to change Ohio’s sports wagering rules,” said Gene Smith, Senior Vice President and Wolfe Foundation-Eugene Smith Endowed Athletics Director. “Collegiate athletes should not be faced with harmful threats, and changing the wagering rules in Ohio can help put an end to this.”
Watch our report from earlier this month on efforts to prohibit these prop bets:
Small number of bets
OCCC Chief Thomas J. Stickrath, in his letter announcing the decision, said that player-specific prop bets made up less than 1.4% of the total sports wagers and total taxable revenue in Ohio in 2023, yet these types of wagers “attach an individual student-athlete’s name to a bet and therefore increase the likelihood of betting harassment being [directly] targeted toward them.”
Gaming operators oppose ban
Eight of Ohio’s sports gaming operators generally objected to an outright ban of player-specific prop bets, with several citing their ability to investigate customers over bullying or harassment allegations and take appropriate action. Operators also argued that a ban would drive sports bettors to make those bets with illegal operators with no safeguards in place and no accountability regarding any threat allegations.
While the state passed a law in 2023 that targets anyone who has already threatened an athlete and bans them from gambling, the NCAA request aims to prevent harassment or threats from occurring the first place by curtailing the urge for sports bettors to deride athletes for their individual performances.
The OCCC rebuffed the claim that banning the prop bets would drive an underground market for them, stating the sports gambling operators provided no actual evidence that would happen, and the risk of a black market boom would be low given the small percentage that individual college athlete prop bets make up of the state’s overall sports betting wagers.
“While I recognize that there may be a small negative impact to operator and tax revenue, the protection of student-athletes and the integrity of collegiate competitions far outweigh these impacts,” Stickrath said.
The OCCC therefore established restrictions on proposition bets on an individual athlete’s performance or statistics in a sporting event governed by the NCAA. Full team performance prop bets are permitted if the proposed wager, on a historical basis, has been determined by the statistical performance of at least two players on the team in over 50% of outcomes.
Sports betting operators have until March 1, 2024 to fully implement the restrictions in their systems and void all impacted wagers.
