NCAA Bars Single-Game Betting States From Hosting Championships

NCAA Upset By Delaware's Expected Implementation Of Single-Game Sports Betting

The NCAA Thursday "barred Delaware member schools from hosting playoff football games along with postseason events in any other sport because the state is about to implement legalized single-game sports betting," according to Kevin Tresolini of the Wilmington NEWS JOURNAL. The NCAA Exec Committee voted that "no predetermined or non-predetermined session of an NCAA championship may be conducted in a state with legal wagering that is based upon single-game betting," though the policy "would not apply to those states that may offer parlay betting, lottery tickets or sports pools/pull tabs." Delaware is "one of just four states, along with Nevada, Montana and Oregon, where sports betting is legal," and the new policy "presumably allows Montana ... to retain its NCAA hosting rights." Tresolini notes the NCAA's decision "came one day after a federal district court denied an injunction request filed by the NCAA and the four major pro sports leagues, all of whom have sued Delaware to stop its sports betting operation." Delaware Gov. Jack Markell's Chief of Staff Tom McGonigle: "Not having gotten its way in court (Wednesday), it is disappointing that the NCAA would take this retaliatory action. Importantly, Delaware law prohibits any type of sports betting on any Delaware college game. So, as applied to Delaware, this new policy only serves to punish the very students the NCAA claims to be trying to protect." Tresolini notes Delaware "had learned in March that its schools would not be permitted to host NCAA championship events if sports betting was enacted," but that policy "did not distinguish between NCAA championship events at predetermined sites ... and non-predetermined sites, which are those earned at the end of a season through a team's successful play, such as in football" (Wilmington NEWS JOURNAL, 8/7).

READY FOR KICKOFF: Delaware Acting Secretary of Finance Tom Cook Thursday said that Delaware "will allow casinos to begin taking bets on all sports" on September 1. Cook: "Our plan is to offer a wide variety. I think this has a huge potential to create a lot of buzz." USA TODAY's A.J. Perez notes this marks the "first time a state official has said the state's three horse track-based casinos would so quickly offer a full range of sports betting." Brandywine Bookmaking President & CEO Joe Asher, whose company has been "tapped by Delaware to provide odds in the state," said that there will be "no difference between the sports and bets offered in Delaware and those available in Nevada" (USA TODAY, 8/7). CSN Mid-Atlantic’s Ivan Carter said, “In Nevada alone, betters put up $81.5(M) on last year’s Super Bowl. That’s one state. To think that other financially-strapped states shouldn’t tap into gambling as a way to raise money is naïve.” The NFL and the other pro leagues “fear that legalized gambling in more states will lead to scandals and hurt the integrity of their games.” Carter: “But the truth is that those lines were crossed long ago. To pretend otherwise is just plain stupid. As New Jersey Sen. Raymond Lesniack said, ‘It’s pure greed. They’re only fighting it because they’re not getting a piece of the action’” (“Washington Post Live,” CSN Mid-Atlantic, 8/6).