NCAA urges gambling commissions to eliminate prop bets

The National Collegiate Athletic Association’s President Charlie Baker (NCAA) is calling on state gambling commissions to adjust state laws and regulations, so gambling on individual prop bets is removed.

A letter from the NCAA was sent to these state gambling commissions, with a reiteration of its first request from 2023, when it asked for state laws and regulations to be amended to include a stronger framework for the protection of student-athlete well-being.

NCAA urges gambling commissions to eliminate prop bets. https://t.co/rfdRnldiAf

— NCAA News (@NCAA_PR) January 15, 2026

As well as the elimination of prop bets and other ‘high-risk’ prop bets like first half unders, the changes also included stricter accountability for bettors found to have harassed student-athletes and/or influenced betting behaviors.

“The Association has and will continue to aggressively pursue sports betting violations in college athletics using a layered integrity monitoring program that covers over 22,000 contests, but we still need the remaining states and regulators to eliminate threats to integrity to better protect athletes and leagues from integrity risks and predatory bettors,” Baker said in a statement earlier Thursday.

NCAA sent a letter to state gambling commissions about prop bets

The letter to the gambling commissions has been published, with the president opening it with a reiteration of the NCAA’s “deep concerns about the dangers collegiate sports betting poses to the health, safety and well-being of over 550,000 student-athletes and to the integrity of NCAA competitions.”

It also explains how enforcement staff have opened investigations into potential game manipulation by approximately 40 student-athletes across 20 schools over the past year. According to the letter, many of these cases have been found to involve wagering on individual prop bets and first half under spread markets.

Some of these cases are said to remain under review, while 11 student-athletes from seven schools have been found to have bet on their own performances with known bettors and/or engaged in game manipulation to collect on bets they, or others, placed.

This announcement comes just a day after Charlie Baker wrote to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, as he urged for college sport offerings in prediction markets to be halted.

Featured Image: Via NCAA media center, screenshot

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