NBA Commissioner Adam Silver this morning reiterated his calls for regulation for daily fantasy sites, saying such measures would be "positive for the industry because I think it would give people who play those games that much more confidence.” Appearing on ESPN Radio's "Mike & Mike" to mark the start of the '15-16 NBA season, Silver said daily fantasy games are a "cash game." Silver: "You put in your credit card, so you are putting money at risk. From that standpoint, I think in terms of the integrity of those businesses, the confidence that fans have, that consumers have in playing those games, I think regulation is in order." He added, "People should know what percent of the pool of money is paid out in the same way you would at a track or in any other event where wagering is involved. I think people should know that there were allegations of so-called insider trading involving one of the games. I think people should know that it is fair, that there are a set of rules that apply to everyone."
REST & RELAXATION: The league has lengthened the season in order to give players more rest, and Silver said, "What we are finding, in terms of injuries, is the correlation is with fatigue as opposed to just the absolute number of games guys play in a season.” He has floated the idea of cutting some preseason games, and he said, "It's not that we don’t need a preseason. ... (Coaches) still need the practice time, especially with such young teams. Guys come into camp in much better shape than they did in the old days, but the practice time is critical. But we think if we reduce the number of preseason games, reduce the number of days in the preseason, every day becomes critically important when you’re squeezing 82 games into roughly 162 days. Right now, we play approximately three-and-a-half games a week. This year we made a significant impact on reducing the back-to-backs and the four games out of five nights, again because that’s the biggest issue in terms of fatigue." He added, "Coaches are learning from each other that the guys have got to get their rest. But also what you’re seeing with older players is they get rested in back-to-backs, so if we can reduce the number of back-to-backs, we think we are going to have better competition and a healthier league” ("Mike & Mike," ESPN Radio, 10/27).
