NCAA Lifts Ban on Title Events in Legal Betting States

The NCAA has recently adjusted one of its policies that relate to sports betting and now states that offer legal sports betting will be allowed to host college championship events. During the Thursday meeting, the National Collegiate Athletics Administration’s (NCAA) board of directors issued a few policy changes and this included the decision to reverse some of the terms of the NCAA Championships Policy Related to Sports Wagering that had previously banned any of the states that legalized any form of legalized single-game betting from hosting college championship competitions.

This NCAA rule has applied to Nevada for years – in fact, the league’s no-championships-for-you policy dates back to 2012 when the state of New Jersey approved its initial single-game sports betting legislation. Even though the NCAA lifted the ban it had imposed on New Jersey in 2013, the league continued to oppose the state’s sports betting industry through the courts of law. However, things began to shift dramatically in May 2018 when the United States Supreme Court lifted the federal ban on sports betting thus paving the way for states to launch their own sports betting industries. The NCAA has, therefore, been forced to adapt to the new gaming laws which means that the even a number of sports betting-friendly states could host championship collegiate sporting events in the near future.

Great News for Las Vegas

Las Vegas now has the freedom to begin bidding for some of the NCAA events that include the Final Four men’s basketball tournament and the College Football Playoff National Championship which means that later this year, which means that in the next five years we could see major sporting championships and regional events here.

To put this into perspective, as soon as this summer, Las Vegas Events and the Las Vegas Convention, Visitors Authority as well as UNLV, will be able to jointly bid for the opportunity to host an NCAA championship starting with the 2022-23 academic year and probably through to 2026-27. This is great for the state since such events are certainly going to generate millions of dollars in revenue for its economy.

Still, the collegiate basketball league reiterated on its support for federal betting standards as well as the fact that they would prefer that college sports be exempted altogether from any betting regime or federal state. But given, the current state of the gambling market, the NCAA expects all forms of sports betting legislation to “protect student-athlete well-being and the integrity of games.” According to the league’s president, Mark Emmert, there is a need for strong federal standards that will safeguard the “safeguard the integrity of college sports and the athletes who play these games at all levels.”