The NBA is on board with allowing consumers to bet on its games, but only if the league gets a piece of the action. As Brian Windhorst of ESPN lays out, the NBA formally requested on Wednesday that a set of laws be put into place if sports wagering is legalized nationally. One of the league’s requests? It wants to receive 1% of every bet placed on an NBA game.
Such a system would create a massive revenue stream for the NBA and other professional sports leagues, particularly if lawmakers open up additional paths for placing wagers on games. According to Windhorst, the league – represented by attorney Dan Spillane, who made his case to a New York State Senate committee – suggested that fans should be able to make legal bets on smartphones and kiosks, rather than just at casinos and racetracks — the U.S. Supreme Court is currently weighing a case to make sports betting at casinos and racetracks outside of Nevada.
“We have studied these issues at length,” Spillane said in his statement. “Our conclusion is that the time has come for a different approach that gives sports fans a safe and legal way to wager on sporting events while protecting the integrity of the underlying competitions.”
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the NBA:
- Keith Smith of RealGM identifies the 10 contracts – not including rookie-scale deals – that he believes are the NBA’s most tradable, as the deadline approaches. Most of the names on Smith’s list are at no risk of being moved, but Hornets point guard Kemba Walker does show up at No. 7.
- Nuggets youngsters Malik Beasley and Juan Hernangomez show up on Mike Schmitz’s list of potential undervalued young trade targets at ESPN.com (Insider link).
- While ESPN’s Jonathan Givony (Insider link) has published his latest version of the sort of mock draft we’re used to, Jeff Zillgitt and Sam Amick of USA Today conducted a mock draft of their own for this year’s All-Star rosters. Givony’s 2018 mock still has Luka Doncic coming off the board at No. 1, followed by Deandre Ayton, Mohamed Bamba, Marvin Bagley III, and Jaren Jackson Jr..