NBA Betting Scandal: League Bans Same-Player Under Parlays as Shane Hennen Pleads Guilty

The memo, first reported by ESPN, went to the league's official betting partners DraftKings and FanDuel and to its authorised operators, including Caesars Sportsbook and BetMGM in Nevada, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. Bettors will no longer be able to combine under bets on the same player's statistics into a parlay.

What the NBA Has Banned

Alongside the parlay ban, the league told sportsbooks to stop offering markets on which team wins the opening tip and under bets on players expected to play fewer than 12 minutes in a game.

Scott Kaufman-Ross, the NBA's executive vice president, told ESPN the league had tried to remove problematic bet types without pushing activity into the illegal market, and that past cases helped decide which markets to target.

Caesars confirmed it worked with the league on the memo and has removed the markets, while DraftKings said the new limits already matched its practices.

Why Under Bets Were Targeted

Under bets on individual players featured in the federal cases involving former Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter and guard Terry Rozier. A player who knows he will leave a game early can all but guarantee that his points, rebounds and assists finish under the line.

Porter left two games early in 2024 to make under wagers win and was banned from the NBA for life. Federal prosecutors said Hennen placed an $80,000 parlay on Porter's unders in one of those games that would have paid $1.1 million before a sportsbook cancelled it.

Rozier has been charged with accepting a bribe to tell bettors he would leave a 2023 Charlotte Hornets game early with an injury. Hennen reportedly bet more than $200,000 on Rozier finishing under his points, rebounds and assists lines in that game.

Shane Hennen Pleads Guilty

Hennen, known as "Sugar Shane", of Las Vegas and Philadelphia, pleaded guilty before a federal judge in Philadelphia to bribery in sporting contests, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and three counts of wire fraud, the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said.

Prosecutors said the scheme began in September 2022 with bribes to Chinese Basketball Association players to shave points during the 2022-23 season, with Hennen placing large bets against the teams whose players had been paid to underperform. The fixers then moved to NCAA men's basketball, where the scheme involved more than 39 players on over 17 Division I teams who fixed or tried to fix more than 29 games. More than $3 million was wagered on those games, causing over $1.1 million in losses to sportsbooks.

Hennen also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in a separate case brought in New York, where prosecutors say insider information from NBA players and coaches was passed through a network of bettors. He faces a maximum of 85 years in prison in the Philadelphia case and 40 years in the New York case. A day earlier, basketball trainer Jalen Smith, a leader of the NCAA point-shaving scheme, was sentenced to six years in prison.

Prediction Markets Fall Outside the Rules

The league's power to restrict markets comes from its agreements with its betting partners, so the memo does not reach prediction markets, which sell contracts on the same games under federal regulation, Legal Sports Report noted. With the season starting on Tuesday, the gap gives the NBA's critics a fresh argument as regulators and courts weigh how sports event contracts should be policed.