Is the NBA the tip of the spear in the fight for regulated sports betting in the United States?
If reports coming out of the league’s recent Technology Summit are to believed, the answer to that question is a resounding, “yes.”
At the summit, which took place last week, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver reiterated the pro-sports betting statements he made last year in a New York Times editorial. Back then he said that the rise of legal sports betting was, “inevitable,” because state governments are, “broke,” and in need of new revenue streams.
Now Silver is finding support for his stance from several team owners, including Dallas Mavericks chief Mark Cuban who said:
We’ve always been hypocritical saying we didn’t realize it was a big part of interest in the game When you do any work on where people are actually gambling, it’s all overseas and places we can’t see, and the league has got to monitor all these third-party betting sites and that makes it a lot tougher.
By bringing it where we can see it, you reduce a lot of the risk that something bad can happen.
Los Angeles Lakers owner Jeannie Buss joined in the pro-sports betting dog pile stating what everyone in the internet gambling business already knows:
It already exists now, so as a league we’re behind our commissioner in the process of supporting legalization on a federal level. We want to see him accomplish that goal, because we feel that any engagement with the fans is a positive.
Though professional basketball is nowhere near as popular as professional or college football in the United States, the NBA’s stance on sports betting is a significant step forward for supporters of regulated sports betting in the United States.
It’s also worth noting that besides voicing their support, which is a pretty big deal, neither the league commissioner nor the team owners have put forth any specifics about what comes next.