Unintended Consequences of NBA Betting

On any given night in the NBA, New York Knicks guard Josh Hart might have 9 or 10 rebounds. Some nights he may have 7 and others he may have 12, but he averages 9.6 boards per game this season. Whether Hart grabs 9 or 10 rebounds in a game probably won’t affect the ultimate outcome. That outcome, of course, is for the Knicks to win.

However, for the sports bettor who likes to wager on NBA player props, there is a big difference between 9 and 10 rebounds per game…especially when Hart’s rebounds prop is set at 9.5. If bettors like the Over (which the public generally does) and Hart ends up with 9, bettors take the loss. As we know now, players like Hart end up taking some of that loss as well.

Hart and numerous NBA and even college basketball players have received everything from death threats to requests for money as the result of lost sports bets. It’s one of the unintended consequences of sports betting.

The NBA & Sports Betting

NBA commissioner Adam Silver embraced sports betting after the U.S. Supreme Court reversed PASPA (Professional & Amateur Sports Protection Act) in 2018. Silver announced co-sponsorships with DraftKings and FanDuel in 2021. Silver and the league see sports betting as a way to increase fan interest in games and, of course, the league loves the extra revenue.

Bettors can wager on everything from the game-winner (moneyline), point spread, and game total to whether or not a player will go Over/Under a certain amount of points, assists, or rebounds in a game. The player props markets for NBA games are huge and, as a result, extremely popular. 

Most NBA bettors will wager on the player stats props – points, rebounds, assists, blocks, etc. Betting on a player to score a certain amount of points is one of the most popular NBA bets. Since most NBA bettors are public bettors and don’t bet on sports professionally, most of these points prop wagers are on the Over. 

Now, when these bets go Under the total, bettors lose. It appears that they often lose their minds as well. Players like Hart and his teammate Jalen Brunson have spoken about the numerous messages they’ve received on social media. The messages are absolutely ridiculous. Hart gets 9 rebounds when his rebounds prop was set at 9.5 and some bettor that lost the bet is on Instagram talking about killing Hart’s family members. The same goes for a number of other NBA stars.

Hart’s Mistake

Hart made the mistake of engaging with one bettor when he was back in college at Villanova. The bettor was upset that he lost his bet on Hart and asked Hart to reimburse him through the Venmo app. Hart thought it would be funny to send the bettor $1. Once word got out that Hart had sent this losing bettor $1, his Venmo got blown up with requests for money.

Players have to be careful in dealing with these so-called fans and bettors. NBA players also have to be careful in how they deal with sports betting as a whole. Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert got called for a foul late in a game against Cleveland earlier this month. He made the dollar sign gesture toward the officials (suggesting the call had something to do with sports betting). The league fined him $100K. It’s a fine line these NBA players must walk. 

The NBA’s Response

Make no mistake. Sports betting makes the NBA a ton of money. Therefore, the league will do whatever it takes to continue its money train. The league must also protect its players and there are measures in place to ensure player safety and well-being. 

The NBA now has a system in place that allows players to notify the league of incidents. These incidents include inappropriate text messages or messages via social media. The problem with many of the social media messages is that they come from anonymous accounts. NBA security does monitor social media for threatening messages and will involve local law enforcement when necessary.

Interestingly, many of the NBA players didn’t know about this system until recently. It’s a start, but players can still be contacted directly if someone finds out their cell phone number or email address. It’s all new for the league, but the NBA is doing a better job with this.

The State of Ohio

Ohio took matters into its own hands. The Ohio legislature passed a law in 2023 that allows casinos and sportsbooks the ability to ban bettors that make threats against athletes. University of Dayton head coach Anthony Grant spoke at length about how his players would get threatening messages after almost every game. 

The messages would threaten bodily harm against Dayton players that didn’t hit their player prop numbers. Grant reminded those listening that we’re talking about 18 to 22- or 23-year-old individuals. With the passage of the bill, bettors that make those types of threats can now be prosecuted and pay dearly.

Bottom Line

One funny story regarding NBA players getting threatening messages from sports bettors involved Kyle Kuzma, who is now a Milwaukee Buck after a trade with Washington. Kuzma noted that he didn’t really read messages on social media sites like X (formerly Twitter). 

Kuzma also said that people engage in sports betting because it’s fun. Bettors can win money, but they can also lose money, especially NBA bettors wagering on parlays. It happens a lot. NBA bettors miss out on a 3- or 4-leg parlay because of one bet. They take to social media to let the one NBA player that “cost” them know of his “sin.” Kuzma thought it was funny that a bettor would waste time going to social media and take out his frustrations on the NBA player. Obviously, the bettor isn’t very good at picking parlays. Maybe the bettor should spend more time on that?

Brooklyn’s Cameron Payne agrees. Payne says he gets a ton of messages about NBA parlay bets. Of course, Payne is part of the parlay. Bettors that lose a parlay because of Payne will, of course, blame him for missing out on a nice parlay payout. “But Cam, couldn’t you have just scored one more point?” Payne noted that bettors are asking him for one more point, but Payne never asked fans to bet on a Nets game, much less his own particular points prop. 

The threats are not just limited to players either. Cleveland head coach Bernie Bickerstaff has received threats. His cell phone number got leaked once and he received hundreds and hundreds of text messages after pulling players out of a game in which the Cavs had a huge lead. Of course, the players were pulled before they got a chance to surpass their player props. 

Disgruntled fans and bettors will never go away. That means we will probably continue to hear some stories about pro and even college athletes receiving harassing messages. Unfortunately, like many things, it’s one of the unintended consequences of legal sports betting in the U.S.

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