"We are better off with a regulated betting framework," says NBA Commissioner Silver

In an interview published by Bloomberg, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver shared his views on the U.S. regulated betting framework, over a year after the Supreme Court’s ruling paved the way for states to legalize wagers on sporting events nationwide. 

"I think it’s better that we have a transparent, regulated, controlled and authenticated market, than keeping it all underground and illegal and I know first hand as a league that," he said, although he mentioned they would prefer to have a consistent federal framework. "We are a league and we are potentially dealing with 50 different states and all their different requirements, so this becomes a huge burden for the business."

Sports betting has been not only legal in Nevada for a long time but also for decades in Europe, so Silver mentioned that the NBA has learned a lot from their counterpart soccer leagues. "They’ve worked and lived in regulated betting frameworks for a long time and they have much better controls than we do."

When speaking about the league’s proposed integrity fee, he stood up against opponents who believe that is a euphemism for ‘just getting a loyalty’: "Alright, call it a royalty, but my view is that this year, the NBA will generate 9 billion and spend roughly 8 billion, so we should share in the proceeds"

He explained states are now imposing a set of requirements on the NBA in terms of how they expect the league to protect the integrity of the product, so "as the creators of the intellectual property, and the organization in which the burden of regulation has been imposed on, my view is we should get a fee.”