For more than five years, sports betting has been expanding across the United States. After the repeal of PASPA, lawmakers in different states enacted retail, mobile or in some cases both retail and mobile sports wagering, allowing punters to be able to wager via legal operators. While there are unquestionable benefits of legal wagering, including support for teams and tax revenue that can be vital for different local and state programs, the activity raises concerns, especially about the integrity of sports and the safety of the professional players.
In a recent interview for NBC Sports’ Golf Central, Norb Gambuzza, PGA Tour’s senior vice president of media and gaming, spoke about the challenges the Tour is facing considering the growth of the legal betting sector and what actions it takes to ensure the integrity of the game.
One of the constant efforts of the PGA Tour is monitoring the betting activities across the world in real-time. This enables the Tour to determine if there are suspicious transactions across the market and if there’s a lot of money moving across the lines for certain players. Those efforts are completed under the PGA Tour’s integrity program.
“We are constantly, in real-time, monitoring betting activity around the world to see what is happening with individual players.“
Norb Gambuzza, senior vice president of media and gaming with the PGA Tour
PGA Tour Officials Are Prohibited from Wagering on Sports
Over the last year, several scandals emerged that involved NFL players engaging in sports betting. In a few cases, some fuming bettors used social media to threaten professional athletes, actions that shook the sports vertical and once again raised concerns about the safety of the players.
In the recent interview, Gambuzza was also asked how the PGA Tour monitors incidents related to golfers who engage in sports wagering. He revealed that after the repeal of PASPA, the Tour implemented robust policies related to integrity, setting clear rules for anyone who has PGA Tour credentials or otherwise people referred to as covered persons.
This policy effectively informs all covered persons about the integrity requirements that safeguard the sport. Not unexpectedly, PGA Tour’s covered persons are prohibited from engaging in wagering on golf, explained Gambuzza.
Besides enforcing internal compliance, the PGA Tour uses the services of Genius Sports and US Integrity, two of its partners that facilitate monitoring betting activities across the globe. Finally, Gambuzza explained that all of the PGA Tour’s betting partners have a list of the covered persons so if anyone places a wager on golf, they are going to be identified right away.