How This One Small Rule Change Affects NBA Sports Betting

• The NBA changed a rule so that teams must release an active and inactive roster 30 minutes before tipoff.
• The increased time of knowing the starting lineups will assist bettors in figuring out exactly what odds to take.
• Adam Silver has also sought out an integrity fee for sportsbooks’ use of the NBA’s “intellectual property”.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The NBA regular season is still seven weeks away, but the NBA preseason began on Monday with the Houston Rockets taking on the Shanghai Sharks. The first game between two NBA teams will take place on Friday morning (1 a.m. EST), as the Rockets and LA Clippers continue the action in Hawaii.

With the new season comes one slight rule change, and while the change is extremely minor to coaches, players, and fans, it means much more to sports bettors.

NBA teams are now required to sign off on a starting lineup 30 minutes before the tip. The previous rule allowed teams to wait up until 10 minutes before game time to list their active and inactive players. As the window of knowledge expands by 20 minutes, bettors will have more time to utilize the information presented to them.

How The NBA Rule Change Impacts Sports Betting

Understanding the starting lineup plays a crucial role in betting on the NBA. In a sport where one player can mean the difference for a team, having the ability to make betting adjustments beforehand will benefit bettors.

“NBA markets can shift drastically just minutes before tipoff,” said Matt Chaprales, head of content for PointsBet USA. “In many cases, the market will already begin moving before a key player is officially downgraded.”

These last-minute adjustments can now give bettors enough time to rerun their numbers, phone a friend, or tinker in their own mind.

This rule change may benefit two legal sports betting groups more than any, though: daily fantasy sports players and prop bet takers.

As the starting and active lineups are announced, DFS players will have the ability to reorder their roster and fill in players that are replacing their starters much easier. Likewise, sports bettors taking a prop bet can consider different betting options after knowing who will be participating in the upcoming game and who not be.

Injury news and healthy-scratches are always an issue in the minds of NBA bettors and daily fantasy players, and this new rule change should do everything to fix this.

“It certainly gives recreational bettors an expanded window to process any lineup information and get down on a game,” said Chaprales. “So, it’s reasonable to expect ticket counts on those market-adjusted games to increase as a result.”

With an increased ticket count, expect the viewers of these NBA games to also increase. Studies have shown that bettors are more likely to engage in a sporting event when they have action on it.

Over the course of a season, this increase in fan engagement can lead to even higher television deals and media contracts for the NBA. In turn, these profits would continue to the owners, coaches, players, and ultimately the spectators through stadium improvements based around the overall fan experience.

But Adam Silver doesn’t seem to think that is enough for the NBA. As Silver has openly discussed the possibility of a betting scandal, the commissioner still feels that more must be done to monitor for suspicious betting activity.

Adam Silver’s Thoughts On Sports Betting

Despite the need to monitor the action, Silver is generally positive toward sports betting. His belief though is that an “integrity fee” is deserved by the league for their “intellectual property” of the game they play.

Silver has staked this claim for years, but nearly every state with legal sports betting approved legislation without the so-called “royalty fee”.

The Commissioner explained that even if called a royalty fee, the NBA still deserves their cut of the action.

Because sports leagues have consistently fought the issue in court that their product is intellectual property, their cases have never won. In fact, even the use of statistics and scores was found to be outside the realm of intellectual property, so Silver’s claims hold limited value.

News tags: Adam Silver | Daily Fantasy Sports | Houston Rockets | LA Clippers | Matt Chaprales | NBA | PointsBet