NCAA Seeking Complete Country-Wide Ban of College Player Prop Bets

• The NCAA is officially seeking a complete ban of all college player prop bets throughout the country
• NCAA President Charlie Baker announced today the organization will be contacting all states to ban these bets
• Maryland, Ohio, and Vermont have banned college player prop bets

As if it wasn’t obvious before, the NCAA has announced it will seek a country-wide ban on college player prop bets.

NCAA President Charlie Baker announced today that starting this week the NCAA will contact officials across the country to remove college player prop bets from all betting markets. Maryland, Ohio, and Vermont have most recently banned the player prop bets from their markets.

“Sports betting issues are on the rise across the country with prop bets continuing to threaten the integrity of competition and leading to student-athletes and professional athletes getting harassed,” Baker said in a released statement.

Protecting Student Athletes

Baker and the NCAA started their push to ban the bets earlier this year as a way to protect student-athletes from harassment stemming from bettors wagering on collegiate prop bets.

“The NCAA has been working with states to deal with these threats and many are responding by college prop bets. This week we will be contacting officials across the country in states that still allow these bets and ask them to join Ohio, Vermont, and Maryland and many other and remove college prop bets from all betting markets,” he noted.

Baker said the NCAA hopes to institute a country-wide ban on college player prop bets to “protect student-athletes and to protect the integrity of the game.”

There are currently 27 states in the country with legalized sports betting to prohibit or limit player-specific prop bets on individual college athlete performance. In the last month, Ohio, Maryland, and Vermont have all instituted bans on the college player prop bet markets.

Ohio Casino Control Commission Executive Director Matt Schuler approved Baker and Gov. Mike DeWine’s (D) request to ban the markets in late February.

“I have determined that good cause supports the NCAA’s request to prohibit player-specific prop bets on intercollegiate athletics competitions because the NCAA’s request will safeguard the integrity of sports gaming and will be in the best interests of the public,” Schuler ruled.

Player-specific prop bets did not account for a large handle total in Ohio. In 2023, Schuler reported approximately $104,604,320 in bets were made on college player props out of a total of $7.65 billion in placed bets. The college player prop handle only constituted 1.35% of the total sports betting handle in 2023.

Maryland Lottery and Gaming directed state sportsbook operators to stop taking bets on individuals college player props as of Friday, March 1. The intent, a Maryland Lottery and Gaming spokesperson said, is to protect college athletes against potential harassment.

“The intent is to focus college sports wagers on teams, rather than on the individual athletes,” the spokesperson said.

NCAA Cited Six Concerns Over Prop Bets

In its official request to the Ohio Casino Control Commission to prohibit the prop bets, the NCAA noted six main points of concern over the wagers.

• Harassment of student-athletes by bettors
• The mental health and general well-being of student-athletes
• Player-specific prop bets increase the risk of insider information being solicited to manipulate betting markets
• Player-specific prop bets may entice student-athletes into engaging in sports betting on themselves
• Player-specific prop bets will increase the risk of “spot fixing” or match fixers targeting student-athletes
• Player-specific prop bets offer college students, who are more prone to problem gambling, a mechanism for engaging in micro-betting