The NBA has gotten the message. And its teams have gotten the memo.
Via Shams Charania of ESPN.com, the league has informed its 30 teams the NBA has commenced a review of “policies regarding injury reporting, training and education of all personnel, and enhancing internal and external monitoring programs to identify betting activity of concern.”
From the document: “While the unusual betting on Terry Rozier’s ‘unders’ in the March 2023 game was detected in real time because the bets were placed legally, we believe there is more that can be done from a legal/regulatory perspective to protect the integrity of the NBA and our affiliated leagues. In particular, proposition bets on individual player performance involve heightened integrity concerns and require additional scrutiny.”
Whether that means lobbying to get rid of prop bets remains to be seen. Until that happens (and it would be a state-by-state effort, most likely), the NBA should try to minimize the amount of inside information available to coaches, players, and anyone else in position to know the kernels of truth that aren’t shared publicly.
The NFL should do the same thing. Yes, all teams would be wise to revisit their own internal procedures for complying with the league’s injury-reporting requirements. But the NFL would also be wise to retreat to square one when it comes to striking the balance between strategic secrecy and inside information.
Currently, the injury reporting policy provides (in the grand scheme of things) minimal insight into what a team plans to do. As it relates to the Ravens’ poorly-time unforced error in characterizing Lamar Jackson as a “full” practice participant when, in reality, he fell within the ridiculously broad range of work that counts as “limited,” if Baltimore had simply used the word “limited” on Friday, there would have been no violation. And the Bears would have been required (through Saturday, when Jackson was ruled out) to make an assessment as to whether Jackson would play based on three days of “limited” practice and the “questionable” designation.
It’s a safe bet (pun intended) that multiple members of the Ravens organization knew Jackson wouldn’t be playing well before he was ruled out. Who knew? More importantly, who did they tell? Even more importantly, what did those who found out do with that knowledge?
The Terry Rozier scandal was flagged only because those who knew the truth decided to be hogs at the trough. If someone is in position to acquire and use inside information — and if they don’t spark betting activity that raises red flags for the sportsbooks — there’s no way to ever detect it.
It will be virtually impossible to prevent inside information from leaving the building. It makes far more sense to reduce the amount of information that only people associated with the team will know.
That should be the first step for the NBA, the NFL, and any other sports league with injury-reporting rules that, when fully complied with, still keep the general public largely in the dark.
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