FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida - The NCAA has held informal discussions with prediction market operators concerning issues such as betting integrity and how those platforms operate when it comes to sports-related trades on college games.
NCAA Associate Director Mark Hicks told RotoWire that the NCAA has yet to enter formal discussions about any potential data-sharing or integrity partnerships.
"We've had some conversations with some of the prediction markets, more of a 'get-to-know you' type of thing," Hicks said after speaking on a panel at the SBC Americas. "More questions from us about what integrity looks like for them. To explain and educate us on how this work."
That the NCAA is even having informal talks with prediction market platforms represents a sea change in terms of where the organization has stood as recently as January.
At that time, NCAA President Charlie Baker called on the Commodities Futures Trading Commission to temporarily halt all trades pertaining to college sports "until the agency implements appropriate regulations."
The relationship, as it is, between prediction market operators and the NCAA remains in the nascent stage.
"The prediction market space is relatively infantile. There's a lot to be seen what will happen, and if there's an issue, how they'll work with that that, how they'll work with the NCAA," Hicks said. "It's an unknown. It's important for us to have an openness, though to engaging in conversations with them."
Major Issues Remain Age, Integrity Enforcement, Props
Atop the NCAA's concerns about college sports being listed on prediction markets -- the fact that those between 18 and 21 are legally allowed under federal law trade on these platforms. Other top-line concerns include real-time notification of any trading irregularities to the NCAA, its integrity partners, and its member schools, and the potential proliferation of single-player props.
Hicks stressed the "public health" concern of having people under 21 -- including some who may still be high school -- making sports-related trades on what are legally termed as "Designated Contract Markets" by the CFTC.
If given the chance to create its own framework concerning college-related trades on prediction markets, the NCAA would require a minimum age of 21, mandate reporting of suspicious activity and prohibited bettors to regulators and leagues and eliminate college player props entirely. All due to concerns over both harassment and integrity concerns.
"The student athlete population is certainly a subset of that. It's really concerning that young people who we know are higher risk can engage in this type of activity at such an early age. And we're really troubled by that," Hicks said.
Hicks noted that -- in some cases -- even first-half "unders" have sparked concerns.
Hicks advocates for a consistent, federally regulated system with mandatory reporting to leagues and national governing bodies, robust geolocation and prohibited-bettor controls, and alignment with existing regulated sports betting safeguards, but applied uniformly.
"I certainly hope they don't go into the player product space, which we think is dangerous for a variety of reasons. One, from a harassment standpoint, you're attaching specific outcomes to an individual. We've seen evidence of that being a problem, but also just from purely an integrity risk. That's when a team sport becomes like tennis. It's an individual who can affect the outcome of some portion of that game, whether it be for points, rebounds, rushing yards, whatever it is." Hicks said.
The NCAA's hopes for oversight of prediction markets that "very much mirror" the same levers and triggers that exist in the regulated sports betting space, "but with that consistency that it's going to apply across the board" nationally.
NCAA Admits Its Leverage Is Minimal
One state regulator told RotoWire that even informational conversations between the NCAA and prediction market operators "is not what we want to hear."
More than a dozen states remain in some form of either litigation against prediction market operators or the CFTC concerning its jurisdiction over those platforms. Other states have either passed laws outlawing them (Minnesota) or are considering similar legislation.
The NCAA has historically declined direct data or marketing deals with betting or prediction operators beyond cutting a deal to share its data through a third-party provider. The NCAA acknowledges it has limited leverage when it comes to getting prediction markets - and sports books -- to accede to some its wishes.
Texas Tech QB Brendan Sorsby received a reprieve this week from a judge in Texas that allows him to play this season (save for a two-game suspension). The NCAA ruled Sorsby ineligible once it learned that he bet around $90,000 on pro and college sports over four years. Among those wagers, 40 were placed on outcomes concerning Indiana football. Sorsby was a freshman QB at Indiana in 2022.
Hicks would not directly discuss the Sorsby case -- or any potential litigation. He said the outcry from NCAA schools, the public, media, and elected officials over the judge's decision in that case could perhaps lead to legislation that would back up the organization's position in matters such as Sorsby's.
"I think if this is not a flash point, I'm not sure what will be, but it certainly seems like a big wave of uniformity around and understanding that this is probably gone, this case is probably gone too far," Hicks said.
Given the outcry from schools inside and outside the Big 12, the public, politicians and even betting stakeholders and outcry from NCAA members, the betting industry, and media, suggesting broad concern that the situation has "gone too far" could spur political or regulatory action.
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