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NBA looking at example of Premier League as legal sports betting expands

Jesse Grant / Getty Images Entertainment / Getty

Following last May's expansion of legalized sports gambling in the United States, the NBA is dedicating extra resources to preventing in-house betting infractions and educating teams, players, and staff.

Soccer and tennis are among the other sports that have experienced gambling scandals, and NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum hopes the league can learn from those examples.

"A lot of it has to do with education with respect to our players, with respect to our teams," Tatum told ESPN's Mark Woods. "We're spending a lot of time learning from the mistakes that were made and what we're seeing in sports betting in places around the world.

"We're trying to educate our fans. We're educating our players and our teams. We're taking a little bit of a cautious approach here. ... But generally, we think it's a good thing for sports betting to be regulated, to be legalized, so there is better information being captured."

Under the NBA's gaming rules, betting, fixing, tipping, and encouraging other people to place bets are all prohibited. Swiss-based data agency Sportradar already monitors betting on games to flag potential irregularities.

The NBA's also gotten advice from the English Premier League. Betting firms and outlets are heavily involved with many of the league's clubs, from jersey sponsorships to in-stadium betting, but the EPL is also under pressure to take more responsibility for gambling's potential negative impacts.

"That really helped inform some of our thoughts on how sports betting could work in the United States. ... We've gone to school on them," Tatum said. "We've actually shared a lot of information with them and have a great partnership with them."

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