Odds Favor NBA Holding Games Without Fans in Attendance Due to Coronavirus

• All of the major sports leagues took action on Tuesday to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus
• Italy, who has about 10 times more cases than the United States, has already banned all sporting events for the time being
• Will the NBA completely shut down the league or play games without their fans in attendance?

As the coronavirus continues to spread around the United States, there has been rampant debate as to what the major sports leagues will do. We’ve already seen countries like Italy play soccer matches in front of empty stadiums; are we going to see the same with the NBA? Oddsmakers expect us to see NBA games with no fans in the very near future.

Odds NBA Holds Games Without Fans

Odds taken Mar. 10

NBA, NHL, MLS and MLB Take Early Precautions

The NBA, NHL, MLS and MLB have already taken some early precautions in regards to the coronavirus as they’ve all decided to limit locker room access. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that the NBA will have a conference call with team owners and governors on Wednesday afternoon, but we’ve already received a few details.

The first change we’re expecting is the league to cut out all non-necessary personnel from having access to the team locker rooms. Effective today, no reporters will be allowed and all media sessions will have to take place in a specific location outside of the locker room. Only essential employees are allowed in.

This is expected to be just the first step and if the virus continues to spread as it is, there will be far greater ramifications.

Italy Could Be Foreshadowing What’s to Come

Many people kind of wrote off the Coronavirus when it was spreading around China but now that we see a lot of other countries getting overrun by COVID-19, the alarms are starting to go off. While China and South Korea appear to have slowed the spread of the disease, it seems like it’s just getting warmed up in the United States.

Italy is a country that could foreshadow what is to come in the United States. On February 27^th, they had about 600 cases of the virus. Italy is now over 10,000 cases not even two weeks later. They’ve essentially shut down the country, banned all travel and have now halted all sporting events.

What we do know is that the virus has not peaked yet in the United States. The comes directly from Vice President Mike Pence and the Coronavirus coordination team. As things get worse, the country will start to shut down concerts, shows and other public events where crowds gather.

What’s the Best Bet?

This prop seems like a no-brainer for ‘Yes’. Hopefully, the virus doesn’t spread but based on what we’ve seen worldwide and what we’re being told by the government, it’s going to get worse. The NBA is already preparing for it and has taken its first few steps. The next step will be to hold games without fans before shutting down the league completely.

We’ve already seen college basketball take the lead as the Ivy League didn’t even bother playing its conference tournament. The NBA will be next to move and they’ll likely start by playing games with no fans before shutting things down completely.