OHIO — Player-specific prop bets on college sports will no longer be allowed in Ohio as of Friday.

What You Need To Know

  • The Ohio Casino Control Commission has banned player prop bets on NCAA Games
  • The decision comes after the NCAA made the request in late January, citing the pressure the bets put on student athletes

  • Ohio’s Casino Control Commission made the decision despite pushback from sports betting operators across the state
 

In late January, the NCAA put in a request to the Ohio Casino Control Commission (OCCC) to prohibit wagers on individual college athlete performances.

The Ohio Casino Control Commission approved that request Friday following reports of harassment against student-athletes at universities in the state as well as the potential threat to the integrity of the bets and the games.

A proposition bet or 'prop' bet is a bet on an individual athlete's performance or statistics that is not directly related to the final score or result of the game. 

Governor DeWine released a statement applauding the move. He stated it will rightfully put the focus back on the teams and not individual players.

“The Ohio Casino Control Commission took quick action to protect student-athletes from unnecessary and potentially harmful threats,” Gov. DeWine said in a statement released Feb. 23. “Amending rules to focus bets on the team and away from individual athletes will improve the marketplace in Ohio and properly focus betting attention on the teams and away from individual student-athletes."

Neil Sullivan, the University of Dayton’s vice president and director of athletics, said he’s grateful for the decision because it prioritizes the safety of the athletes. 

“People reaching out through social media, people harassing them and their families over the internet and reaching out to them for their performance or lack of performance, you know, is not good for young people, and the stage that they're on is tough enough,” Sullivan said. “We felt that those comments and some of them were extremely vile and inappropriate, and it just crosses the line.”

The Ohio Casino Control Commission received written comments from eight of Ohio’s sports gaming operators on the NCAA’s request. According to the OCCC, those operators generally objected an outright ban and stated the ban would drive bettors to make the prop bets illegally without regulations. But despite that opposition, the OCCC approved the NCAA’s request.

The ban goes into effect Friday but Sports betting operators have until March 1 to get rid of the prop betting option on their services.

To be clear the rule changes will not affect professional sports games. 

For more information, you can visit here. 

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