What are prop bets, and why can’t sports leagues escape them?

LAS VEGAS (AP) – Major League Baseball and its affiliated sportsbooks offered a fast reaction Monday to the latest on a growing list of sports betting scandals, capping bets on individual pitches at $200 and excluding them from parlays to keep those prop bets from jeopardizing the integrity of the sport.

That decision came a day after Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were indicted on charges they took bribes from sports bettors to purposely throw certain types of pitches that would pay off bets. Bettors allegedly made at least $460,000 off the rigged pitches.

Prop bets are also at the center of a scandal in the NBA. Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier was arrested Oct. 24 and accused of providing inside information on teammates’ injuries to gamblers and removing himself prematurely from an NBA game.

The four major North American sports leagues and many of their teams have embraced legal wagering and formed partnerships with sports-betting companies while at the same time insisting the integrity of their games are what matters most. Prop bets have become a point of contention. Here’s what to know.

Gamblers can bet on anything from how many yards a quarterback will throw for in a game to how many points an NBA player will score. In-game wagering allows for even more granular betting, such as whether the first pitch in the fourth inning of an MLB game will be a strike.

Prop bets that depend entirely on the efforts of one person – like the ones Clase and Ortiz are charged with targeting – are ripe for exploitation. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver are among those who have asked for limits around such wagers.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has called for the Ohio Casino Control Commission to end player-specific micro betting entirely.

Others have suggested allowing payoffs only on the over – like predicting a player will score more than 20 points, but not fewer – because it would be difficult to rig that kind of outcome. Even before baseball made its announcement, betting limits also have been floated as a possible way to at least curb gamblers working together with athletes to alter how games are played.

MLB’s announcement Monday about limiting action on pitch-level prop bets marked a rare win for those concerned about them. MLB said in a statement that “most prop bets present limited integrity risk because they take into account multiple events that are influenced by more than one actor. However, ‘micro-bet’ pitch-level markets (e.g., ball/strike; pitch velocity) present heightened integrity risks because they focus on one-off events that can be determined by a single player and can be inconsequential to the outcome of the game.”

Pitch-level micro bets are hardly the only wager offered by books that can be impacted by just one player. Think of minutes played, yards gained or points scored. Such bets are easy to find and also dictated by actions of individual athletes.

Commercial sports betting revenue in the U.S. is already over $10 billion this year, according to the American Gaming Association. With that sort of money at stake, it’s highly unlikely prop bets are going away. Betting partners have become a tremendous source of income for leagues and teams, and prop bets are a big driver. For the sportsbooks, too, because they can massively expand their wagering menus.

Prop bets also help keep gamblers engaged with game action, even in blowouts. That benefits leagues, teams and sportsbooks at a time when alternative entertainment options have never been more plentiful. Some leagues, including the NBA and PGA Tour, have even experimented with betting-specific alternate broadcasts to spur that engagement.

All four major North American leagues use monitoring services that track in real time for unusual betting activity. If any is detected, that information is reported immediately to that specific league.

It’s unclear whether MLB’s service tipped off baseball that something could be afoul with the Guardians players, but it was the league that notified authorities of a potential problem.

Rozier is a subject in a larger-scale FBI investigation that resulted in more than 30 arrests, though the NBA conducted its own inquiry and said it found no evidence of wrongdoing. Whether the NBA was alerted through its monitoring service is uncertain.

It depends. Those who support legalized sports betting say the system is working as designed because perpetrators are being caught. It’s much easier to track if athletes are involved with gambling than it was when most wagers were handled out of sight through illegal bookies. Detractors argue that easy access to legal betting attracts those, including athletes, who otherwise wouldn’t gamble on sports.