The NBA’s latest sports betting scandal could be considered proof that the legal gambling market is “working,” according to Fanatics Betting & Gaming CEO Matt King.
“This is a legal market working,” King said on CNBC’s Squawk Box, adding that “this issue is very much like insider trading…people are always trying to get an unethical edge or a criminal edge. Same thing in sports.
“This stuff has happened in the past. You know, the reason that it got caught was because there is a legal market and we were able to see it quickly.”
NBA player Terry Rozier was one of six named defendants in an illegal sports betting scheme where gamblers used non-public information to bet on a bevy of NBA games, spanning across the 2022-23 and 2023-24 NBA seasons.
“Those bets got reported the day that it happened and then the investigation kicked off,” King added during his appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box.
Changes To Legalized Sports Betting Upcoming?
Sports betting has been approved and legislated on a state level in the U.S. with 39 states (and the District of Columbia) allowing sports betting.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has long been a proponent that it should be federally regulated.
“I think, probably, there should be more regulation, frankly,” Silver recently said while appearing on ESPN. “I wish there was federal legislation rather than state by state. I think you’ve got to monitor the amount of promotion, the amount of advertising around it.”
Federal regulation would bring massive ramifications to the industry, including the potential changes in which sportsbook operators are approved to do business in the U.S.
At the moment, operators are approved on a state-by-state level and each state has different criteria for allowing business to proceed. Fanatics, for example, is only legal and operational in 22 states (in addition to the District of Columbia).
Watch Full CNBC Interview
As King explains, the sportsbook operators are having “a lot of conversation with leagues around from their perspectives and frankly from (the sportsbook’s) perspectives…It’s the Fed stepping in to provide a regulatory regime that really authorizes sports trades, if you will.”
“But you’re going to need the same investment in time and money and effort with the leagues to make sure we get integrity right in those places. And then you get the right surveillance in place”
