Mark Cuban says sports betting influenced new NBA new rest rules

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban addressed the NBA’s new rules on resting players Thursday, as a guest on ESPN’s First Take, and he had an interesting theory behind why the rules were necessary.

You can read all about what the rules entail here, but in a nutshell, they were implemented to curb the amount of games star players miss for reasons that aren’t injury related. From Cuban’s perspective, though, the issue of players missing games was blown out of proportion, and he thinks a lot of that came from sports bettors.

“On social media, half the talk, if not more, is ‘well, I’ve got this bet in this game, or what are the odds going to be? What’s the line going to be?’ And that influences a lot of the perspective of load management, because who am I going to bet on?,” Cuban said.”And that’s unfortunate, but that’s the reality of the world we live in.”

On face value, Cuban’s comments seem silly. Load management has been an issue since before the Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on betting in 2018 — since Gregg Popovich was resting his aging stars in an effort to preserve them for the playoffs. Why would the NBA finally make stricter rules for bettors?

But considering who these comments came from, there might be something to them. After all, the rule had to be approved by the NBA’s Board of Governors, a.k.a. the team owners, which includes Cuban. He was in those rooms where this rule was discussed, and he was involved in the conversations around why it was necessary. Apparently, the noise around load management got loud enough to where something needed to be done.

What turned up the volume on that noise? It’s hard to say, other than people simply growing tired of a prolonged issue. But it’s also hard to ignore the legalization of sports betting over the last decade as a potential catalyst. Before that, people might have complained if star players missed the select games on national TV, or the games they attended in person. Bettors, though, can be upset about games literally any day of the week.

Line movement from players sitting can have negative consequences on both the casual consumer and the league’s sportsbook partners. And that’s not to mention the popular prop betting market, which I’d guess gets less engagement from casual bettors hesitant to throw money on players they know less about when stars sit. Those added voices to an already existing chorus of complaints around load management can seem loud, especially to companies looking to do business with the NBA.

I still contend the biggest reason the league had to address load management was to land the best possible TV deal as it negotiates a new contract. It didn’t matter whether load management was an actual issue or not. If that was the perception, the NBA had to do something to make it look better.

Did bettors create that perception? No. But did they help further the narrative? Cuban thinks so, and it’s not all that crazy to consider.