NCAA has its prop bet ban request sunk by Missouri watchdog

Missouri gambling regulators have rejected the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) request to block prop bets on college games. With months of fiascos surrounding the style of betting and college-level games, it comes as a surprise that the ban wasn’t implemented.

The NCAA claims that there’s been a rise in harassment by bettors, as well as pointing to insider information being used to profit via gambling. Another implication of keeping prop bets around is that college students have been found to have bet on themselves, manipulating the game for their own gain.

Despite providing data and examples of issues that have cropped up, the Missouri Gaming Commission (MGC) rejected the NCAA’s request.

If the MGC had agreed to amend its sports betting rules, it could have put an end to some manipulation of games.

So why did the MGC reject the proposition? It comes down to how fresh legal gambling is in the state.

Sports betting was just allowed on December 1, 2025, and the Commission argues that it’s still too new to begin amending things. Commission chair Jan Zimmerman said:

“I just don’t feel that I have enough information to grant a request by the NCAA to prohibit this type of sports wagering because I don’t know enough yet.”

Prop bets, or proposition bets, rely on specifics. It’s more than just “who won”, but can be applied to multiple aspects of the game. Who takes the most shots, which players will score, and the like.

In recent months, ReadWrite has reported on multiple instances of either colleges or the NCAA itself having to deal with betting scandals. Prop bets have been the center of multiple controversies.

One of the most recent scandals reported last week involved NCAA basketball players’ “points shaving” to manipulate games for profit.

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