Sports Betting May Further Complicate NCAA Antitrust Concerns
Sports Partner Jennifer O’Sullivan spoke with Bloomberg Law to discuss the NCAA and its members schools’ potential desire to profit from gambling on their sporting events. The issue follows the US Supreme Court’s recent decision to strike down a federal ban on sports gambling which may subject them to “increased antitrust scrutiny.”
The article detailed that The University of Connecticut and Rutgers University, among others, are reportedly pushing for a fee model which would require sports betting venues to pay a portion of gambling revenues to sports governing bodies such as the NCAA or to the member schools directly to help offset the costs of compliance measures to ensure the integrity of games.
Jennifer said that “the NCAA and its schools could certainly be subjected to additional scrutiny from an antitrust perspective if they participated in an integrity fee model with any of the states where they received a percentage of the betting action.” She noted that such a move could “dilute their primary stance of student-athlete first.” Bloomberg reported that the NCAA will need to carefully navigate next steps as its member schools push for revenue from gambling as to not lose sight of their commitment to student athletes. Jennifer noted that “how they get there while maintaining their core principles is the question.”
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