Disclosure of athlete injuries dubbed “tricky” as betting impact debate rages
Sports Betting Regulators Association president Ed Martin suggests there are hurdles to public confirmation as injury-impacted wagers continue to make waves on social media
The National Council of Legislators from Gaming States (NCLGS) have discussed whether an athlete’s medical conditions at both pro and collegiate level should be public knowledge in relation to sports betting.
More than 100 legislators and regulators across the United States are in attendance for the four-day conference in Fort Lauderdale, with the topic having cropped up on the first day of the conference.
The crux of the debate is whether injuries sustained by athletes should be disclosed to the sports betting public due to the potential impact it has on markets and wagers.
In a high-profile case last November, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow suffered a wrist injury against the Baltimore Ravens. Burrow underwent season-ending surgery the following day.
The injury suffered by Burrow led to Barstool Sports owner Dave Portnoy threatening to open a class action lawsuit against the NFL and Bengals after placing, and losing, a six-figure bet.
Portnoy tweeted that had he known the quarterback was injured heading into the game, he would not have placed a bet.
The NFL cleared the Bengals of any wrongdoing, despite a now-deleted post on the team’s social media showing the former LSU star wearing a brace on his right wrist before the match.
As reported by Covers, Sports Betting Regulators Association president Ed Martin explained that reporting on medical conditions raises a conundrum due to federal medical laws.
Martin said: “This is an extremely tricky one because of, at least in the US, federal medical privacy laws.
“It raises the question of whether there are athletes who are competing under therapeutic-use exemptions and whether or not there should be some transparency of that.
“Or if somebody gets treated mid-game, does the betting public, because of the in-game wagers that are being allowed, should the betting public have some level of disclosure of what it was that treatment was?”
Because pro teams are forced to publicly announce injuries to their players, the NCLGS discussed whether medical conditions at the college level should also be disclosed to the public due to their being no reporting system at that level.
David Rebuck, director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, said it was unlikely legislators and regulators will be able to force a change due to the sheer volume of college athletes and teams compared to the 32 franchises in the NFL.
Rebuck said: “I’m not so sure we can mandate it on our end, but I think certainly the college athletic leagues are smart enough to see there’s concerns being raised with how inside information on a person’s condition is shared and then what happens to that information by the people who have it on their campus.
“I think we as a group can say that we see this as a potential problem, but I don’t know how we can direct them to address it in a way that they’re going to have to make significant changes in their operations,” he concluded.
Per the NFL’s injury report policy rules, teams are to disclose any player that has an injury which causes them to miss a game, prevents them from completing a game, or hinders them from completing their normal practice workload.