As the NCAA Tournament reaches its climax this weekend with the Final Four at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, a striking fact has emerged from the courtroom just blocks away: not a single sportsbook has agreed to the NCAA’s official data arrangement with Genius Sports.
Chris Termini, the NCAA’s vice president for championship business affairs, confirmed as much in a March 26 declaration to the US District Court in Indianapolis. “To date, no sportsbook, including DraftKings, has agreed to the NCAA restrictions and integrity standards,” he wrote — a blunt acknowledgement that the deal, announced with some fanfare a year ago, has found no commercial takers.
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What Genius Sports and the NCAA put on the table
Last year, Genius Sports announced a new agreement with the NCAA that would give sportsbooks access to official tournament data — along with the right to use NCAA trademarks — in exchange for adherence to a strict set of integrity standards. The package was designed to give operators legitimacy while giving the NCAA a mechanism to enforce its anti-gambling principles on the platforms profiting from its events.
But the conditions attached to the deal have proven to be a dealbreaker for every operator approached. To access the official data and trademarks, sportsbooks must agree to ban high-risk prop bets on college sports — including under bets on individual player point totals — share geolocation and betting information with the NCAA for integrity investigations, submit to ongoing monitoring, and actively support the NCAA’s responsible gambling campaign.
Why sportsbooks are walking away
The restrictions represent a significant operational concession, and the major operators have decided the data is not worth the price. DraftKings and FanDuel have also opted out of a similar Genius Sports arrangement with the NFL, leaving the league without a sportsbook sponsor for the first time since 2021 — suggesting the pushback is part of a broader pattern rather than a NCAA-specific dispute.
Most US states do not require licensed sportsbooks to use official league data, and those that do typically make exceptions when official data cannot be feasibly accessed. That regulatory reality removes much of the commercial incentive for operators to accept restrictions that would limit their product offerings.
The prop bet crackdown gains momentum
While the sportsbooks are holding firm on the data deal, the legislative environment around college prop bets is shifting independently. Louisiana, Maryland and Ohio have already moved to ban college athlete prop bets outright. This week, the Kentucky General Assembly passed a bill that would prohibit licensed operators from offering under prop markets on college players — the latest in a growing list of states taking direct action on an issue the NCAA has long flagged as a priority.
Termini was pointed in his frustration. “It is unfortunate that the sportsbooks, including DraftKings, are unwilling to accept these restrictions,” he said. With the Final Four underway and billions of dollars wagered on the tournament, the gap between the NCAA’s integrity ambitions and the commercial realities of the sports betting industry has rarely been more visible.
