The NBA is tightening its sports betting rules for the 2026-27 season. It is restricting selected player props and requiring players, coaches and training staffs to attend in-person sessions led by former NFL player and former FBI agent Charles Tillman. According to Front Office Sports’ report on the league’s new betting restrictions, the changes target wagers considered vulnerable to manipulation, alongside a new AI-based system designed to detect suspicious betting activity.

Tillman spent 12 seasons with the Chicago Bears after being selected in the second round of the 2003 NFL Draft, recording 36 interceptions and 42 forced fumbles in Chicago. He finished his career with the Carolina Panthers in 2015 and joined the FBI as a special agent in 2018. In September 2025, he said he had resigned from the bureau.

The league has brought him in to provide live, in-person training on its sports betting rules, and its memo makes attendance mandatory for players, coaches and training staffs.

NBA Restricts Player Props as Adam Silver Seeks Greater Oversight

The new restrictions follow concerns Commissioner Adam Silver has raised about prop bets for more than a year.

“It’s too easy to manipulate something which seems otherwise small and inconsequential to the overall score,” Silver said on The Pat McAfee Show in October 2025. He added that the league was working “with the betting companies” on “some additional controls to prevent some of that manipulation.”

Silver has since pushed for greater access to wagering data and more control over betting markets involving NBA games.

“For us, whether it’s called a prediction market, whether it’s sports betting, it’s the same issues for our league, and I think for all the leagues,” Silver told CNBC last week in Macao. “There’s issues around integrity first and foremost.”

“So we want access to that data. We also want control over the markets,” Silver told CNBC. “We have roughly 40 different jurisdictions regulating us right now, so to have a consistent policy nationally, I think, would be in our best interest.”

While Silver’s latest comments centered on prediction markets, which the new restrictions do not cover, the crackdown on sportsbook props reflects the same integrity concerns he has repeatedly raised.

In a separate letter to sportsbook operators, the NBA prohibited several types of wagers, including bets on which player records the first basket, rebound, assist, steal or block. Bets on the outcome of the opening tip and whether a player misses a specific shot attempt are also prohibited.

The league is additionally restricting low-probability, high-payout bets involving statistical unders. These include parlays combining multiple under wagers on the same player and certain under bets involving players expected to play fewer than 12 minutes. The restrictions do not constitute a blanket ban on all player under bets.

The measures apply to the NBA’s official sportsbook partners, DraftKings and FanDuel, as well as authorized operators such as Fanatics and Caesars. According to Front Office Sports, prediction markets are not covered by these restrictions. The rules will also extend to WNBA games in 2027.

The changes follow several high-profile gambling investigations involving NBA figures. Former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud after admitting to manipulating his participation in games to benefit bettors. The NBA banned him for life in 2024.

Former Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier has pleaded not guilty to federal charges and denied wrongdoing. Prosecutors allege that bettors used information about his expected early exit from a March 2023 game, when he played for the Charlotte Hornets, to wager on his performance. His trial has been reported as scheduled for February 2027, although court dates can change.

Beyond the betting restrictions, the NBA has developed an in-house AI-based monitoring platform designed to detect and investigate unusual wagering activity. The league says the system will help identify suspicious patterns involving NBA games and events. It is also strengthening protections against betting-related harassment and expanding gambling education for rookies through the NBA Combine and its Rookie Transition program.

NBA executive vice president Scott Kaufman-Ross has emphasized the need to remove problematic wagers without pushing betting activity into illegal markets. By combining targeted restrictions, mandatory education and enhanced monitoring, the league is seeking to protect game integrity while Silver continues to advocate for greater oversight of emerging betting markets.