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The fallout from the NBA scandal last week following an FBI investigation has led many to question the sports betting market, including its legal aspect.
That was especially the case for Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, who was among more than two dozen arrested for his role in the FBI’s sports betting investigation. He allegedly revealed private information about his injury status and when he would leave a game to place certain prop bets.
There was a similar situation last season with former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter, who was banned from the NBA indefinitely and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Porter, who is connected to this current FBI investigation, had previously been convicted of disclosing confidential information to sports bettors about his own health status and of betting on games in violation of league rules.
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Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier during the second half against the Washington Wizards on March 31, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)
So seeing a situation like this happen on perhaps a larger scale, Fanatics Betting & Gaming CEO Matt King was “disappointed” to see “criminal elements” come into play in a market that has grown exponentially as more states legalize it. But given his experience, King explained why he believes this situation shows that the legal aspect of sports betting is working.
“If you look at the timeline, the suspicious betting activity was flagged immediately, it was reported immediately. Investigations were launched immediately,” King told Pak Gazette Digital earlier this week.
“You had the right people involved. Obviously, the leagues were ahead trying to aggressively understand what was going on, but they don’t have subpoena power. So they can see some of it. But they all worked collaboratively with the FBI, who was able to have subpoena power and really investigate. In the end, the perpetrators were caught, and I’m sure they will be brought to justice.”
Fanatics Sportsbook is a newer operation and was in the early stages of its development when Rozier was accused of being involved in possible betting irregularities on a game on March 23, 2023. But King’s experience in this industry goes beyond the work he now does with Fanatics Betting & Gaming, as he previously served as CEO and CFO of FanDuel.
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As for the question about the future of sports betting, especially the prop betting market, King offered a perfect analogy.
“These kinds of things are inevitable and I look at it through the lens of… the parallel I draw is the stock market,” he explained. “People have traded stocks for hundreds of years and there has always been a risk of insider trading. Consequently, there is a healthy and aggressive regulatory enforcement regime to ensure that people do not trade on insider information. This is no different from that.
“I see it as a great case study of the market and regulation, everyone working and industry participants working together. I hope the perpetrators set an example, because the deterrent element is equally important.”
Matthew King, CEO of Fanatics Betting and Gaming, inside Fanatics Sportsbook at Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey, September 14, 2025. (Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)
King also gave perspective on how these cases were caught early on and what an operation like Fanatics Sportsbook does when a flag is raised about betting.
“Many times, the first sign that emerges of suspicious activity is a volume much higher than we would have expected,” King said of a suspicious bet. “That usually alerts you and helps you investigate further. Particularly when a [prop bet] or a low-level tennis match or something exceeds expectations, then it really begs the question: “Where does it come from?” Who makes the bet? Where do they make that bet? Is this consistent with your historical betting patterns? Questions like that. We have a lot of analytical resources and a lot of people on staff who spend time analyzing this data and making sure we understand it.
“Now, a lot of times you get a false flag. You dig into it and think, ‘Hey, we weren’t expecting this much action on the underdog,’ and it turns out that the popular underdog had a great Instagram story, and people are just piling on a narrative that exists in sports, which is great. It’s healthy. So, there are a lot of false flags, but ultimately a portion of those flags that are raised become something suspicious, and we report it to the appropriate authorities.”
In short, King knows that, like any market prediction, there will be those who want to gain an advantage. Therefore, the future of betting on any professional sport will have those who will try to game the system.
However, King believes that the strongest point that can be made about this alleged criminal activity is that having a legal market, along with aggressive regulations and monitoring, can at least decrease the potential for illegality.
A self-service betting kiosk displaying NBA game odds inside Fanatics Sportsbook on Nov. 23, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio. (Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images)
“The most important takeaway from this conversation is for everyone to understand that sports betting will exist no matter what,” he said. “You can’t show me a time in history, a country in the world, a sport that’s popular that doesn’t have a certain level of sports betting. We just have to accept that sports betting is going to exist. Then it’s simply a question of whether you want it to exist as a legal market or an illegal market.
“The reality is that this activity was detected because it is a legal market, because you could have relationships with leagues and have integrity monitoring services for which you could flag data and people could investigate. If sports betting had not been legalized, all you would have are illegal markets that have no commitment to integrity or consumer protection, which is the other side to remember. If you are betting at an illegal bookmaker, they have no requirement, no interest in making sure that you are betting within your means or anything like that.
“I would say that the best thing for the integrity of the game, the best thing for consumer protection, is a two-pronged strategy: a robust legal market combined with aggressive enforcement against the illegal market.”
Fanatics Sportsbook, in addition to having key responsible gaming tools for consumers, also has a unique “fair play” policy that protects bettors from early player injuries.
Charlotte Hornets guard Terry Rozier looks to pass against the Boston Celtics during the second half at Spectrum Center. (Nell Redmond/USA Today Sports)
This consumer protection addresses those situations where it is clear that key players are harmed, but also the potential for something like the Rozier case. As a team’s starting shooting guard, Rozier’s prop bets are plentiful every night he’s on the court, but if he leaves early and never returns, Fanatics Sportsbook voids that bet through fair play.
Overall, there is no true way to eradicate the illegal side of sports betting, but operations like Fanatics Sportsbook and leaders like King continue to implement the necessary regulations, technology and collaborations with leagues to ensure a fair and level playing field for all those who wish to gamble.
“We will always be on the front lines with leagues and regulators to determine what is the right mix of prop bets to offer,” King said. “What I would say, however, is that there is a balance. Because ultimately, if you have a legal sports betting market, but where the regulations are strict with what you can offer to the point of not giving consumers what they want, then they will enter the illegal market. It undermines the value of having a legal market. So I see it as finding the right balance that ensures that we can limit and make common sense decisions, but also take something that consumers want.”
