Given the Tim Donaghy scandal of 2007, it is perhaps surprising that the NBA is the professional sports league at the forefront of the push to legalize sports gambling in the United States.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver - thought to be the most influential person in the business of sports - has been a vocal supporter of sports betting reform since taking over the job one year ago. He wrote an op-ed piece in The New York Times that pushed for legalization and regulation, pointing to the obvious appetite for it in the market and suggesting Congress could control an otherwise illicit industry.
Prior to that op-ed, Silver had seemed somewhat begrudging in admitting the NBA would ultimately participate in legal sports betting. That's something New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie later called a bait-and-switch, with the NBA and other pro sports leagues filing an injunction against the state's play to legalize gambling. Silver made it clear at that time that the league is interested in federal regulation.
In a lengthy article to be published in ESPN The Magazine on Feb. 16, Silver opened up even further about the league's stance on gambling. In short, Silver doesn't love it, but it's an inevitability the league wants to be out in front of:
One of my concerns is that I will be portrayed as pro sports betting. But I view myself more as pro transparency. And someone who's a realist in the business. The best way for the league to monitor our integrity is for that betting action to move toward legal betting organizations, where it can be tracked. That's the pragmatic approach.
Silver will almost surely need the support of the NFL, the NHL and MLB, and the leagues are believed to have met. The other leagues have publicly remained anti-legalization, but ESPN cites multiple sources who believe the NHL, at least, may be more open to it than their public comments suggest.
