The Josh Innes Show - NFL Ending Prop Bets?

Episode Date: November 14, 2025

An NFL memo says that we could be seeing certain prop bets going away. I don't believe this is going to be a big deal. The NFL and other leagues know gambling is a huge part of what makes people watch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And it really frightened me because this is something, this is, real talk, I don't even know that I'd give a shit to watch some of these games if I wasn't betting on them. Like I like sports. I dig sports. I love football, all that kind of stuff. And maybe I just have an issue. Maybe you listen to this and go, Josh, you're pretty fucked up. But it's no different than someone playing with their fantasy team or whatever, which you know how I feel about that. So you can play fantasy sports, which is prop bets. But I want to sit there and bet on Justin Fields passing yards. And I'm a shithead. I'm a degenerate. Well, you know what? fuck you.

Like I saw someone post about this on Twitter, not someone I follow, but it showed up on one of these stories. And it was a reaction to a barstool story about how sports betting and taxing the sports betting is ridiculous. And the guy's like, sports gambling, this real degenerate behavior. Well, who are you to judge that? We live in a country where people can buy cigarettes, can buy alcohol, all this kind of shit.

And you want to tell me that I can't bet on a football game? Screw you. but let's see and I haven't really dug into this yet so I haven't seen the specifics that the NFL wants to do away with or kind of curb or kind of limit because there are some that I'd be fine with them limiting because like honestly you know the ones that kill me the most unless I'm red hot or like you know to catch a pass on the next drive bets like I'll do those a lot and that's where I lose the most because I'm like I'm mad I'm like I'll bet on a guy to catch a pass in the next drive and look I've hit plenty of those but that's where like when I'm really like I was watching a Monday night game the Lions were in the the other day. It was the Tampa one. And I'm just sitting there just continuing to putting these bets out of anger. Those are the bets where I think people really screw themselves. I've done it to myself. But I don't think prop bets should go away. And this is all because these dipshit baseball players are throwing balls in the dirt on purpose and it's screwing with everybody else so they can make $5,000 when they're multi-million dollar athletes are throwing a damn ball into

the fucking dirt so they can win five grand. But I'm okay with those because like next pitch and those kind of things are, I agree that those are shitty ones, and those are ones that are really exploitive-type bets. But anyway, let's play a few commercials, and then we will talk about this. Let's see what the specifics are on this. All right, let's see here. In memo, NFL details efforts to curb prop bets amid wider betting probes. I just want to know what the particular prop bets they want to get rid of are, because I'm fine with a lot

of them, but I love passing yardage overs, and I love quarterbacks to. to combine for 500. So let's see. The NFL sent a memo to team officials Thursday to reemphasize the league's stance on what types of wagers are permitted with its sportsbook partners, specifically calling out certain prop bets

which have come under increased scrutiny in recent weeks following the federal indictments of MLB and NBA players. In the memo, the league said it has actively engaged with both state lawmakers and regulators as well as our sports betting partners to limit and where possible prohibit altogether prop bets in the NFL. It is important to note, okay, that part of what's making all of these leagues successful is gambling. And they know that.

They're not stupid, just like they knew way ahead of the game that fantasy sports would do it. Again, fantasy sports are prop bets. If you're going to do this, you can't be hypocrites about it. You've got to limit what you can do in fantasy football, too. Now, the memo breaks down prohibited wager categories as those that are inherently objectionable, i.e. player injuries, fan misconduct, which I would agree with that. I guess that would be, like, people running on the field. And I've always wondered that.

Like, if you're at the Super Bowl and there's a bet that, and this is a fan conduct, like, there's a bet for the Super Bowl. Will there be a fan that runs on the field and will they make it on TV? Well, in theory, you could bet a shitload of money on that and then run on the field. Now, they could find out if that was you and you probably wouldn't get away. with it. But it's something that could cause people to do something stupid. So I would agree with that, actually. Officiating related, like officiating assignments, penalties, etc., determinable by one person in one play, i.e. quarterback's first pass attempt to be incomplete and predetermined, which would be

events that could be determined before a game is played. Well, technically wouldn't, like, I guess that couldn't. So I'm trying to think of examples of what could be determined before the game. So I guess you could come out and say, hey, I'll throw an incompletion on the first one. Let's see legal sports books in the United States generally have not offered these types of bets in the past anyway, and it's not anticipated that Thursday's memo will force any changes

of their offerings. The memo specifically states that the league considers the use of prediction markets such as Kalishi and polymarket to be prohibited gambling activity. It also includes a reminder of NFL rules, personnel under the league's gambling policy,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. people posted this to me like it was going to end the world like I'm fine with that but I'd still like to have the opportunity to bet on passing yards like ultimately you cannot determine the number of passing yards you have like someone's on the other end of that pass I guess you could if you really wanted to but it's very easy to manipulate the first pass of the game being an incompletion and you can make it look like you tried like there's a bunch of factors in that and I'm okay with that like if you got rid of those if you got to have a catch on the next drive probably bets like a lot of that kind of stuff I'm fine with that just like in baseball I am totally fine with next pitch bets because those are the kind where I think people really get themselves in trouble and I've done it myself so like the next pitch bets like if you want to talk about degenerate you know material like I put that one in there like next pitch to be a strike first pitch of the inning to be a ball whatever I would agree if you call that degenerate activity I would concur but I would not be in favor at

all of saying do away with all prop bets. And it's very easy for people who do not gamble and people who just want to judge people, who I'm sure have vices of their own. I'm sure there's a large number of people who want gambling to be more regulated or to do away with certain things. And they'll call you a degenerate if you do it. But they're the same people that might get blackout hammered on a Saturday afternoon. And guess what then? So if you want everybody to be protected from themselves, then we have to limit the number of alcoholic beverages you can purchase in the store. And if we find out that you consume too much alcohol, there's going to be a great punishment, whatever. Like, same thing with weed, which I get as heavily regulated anyway,

but cigarettes, which I also understand has like a heavy tax factor in there as well. But how about we stop telling people how to live their lives? How about we stop telling people that we know what's better for them than they do? How about we let people live their lives? How about we do that? Instead, we want to focus on this gambling and part of the reason why people can focus on it is because there's not, you know, big picture, there's not as many people doing that as are probably smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol or whatever. So it's very easy for these people to run to social media and say you're a degenerate when they may smoke cigarettes.

Well, what if I came to you and said, well, we're going to limit the number of cigarettes you can smoke every day and if we find out that you smoke more than this, there's a punishment. And it's stupid. So let people live their lives. But again, I'm not against the idea. I'm in favor of the idea here of limiting those kind of bets because I do believe that those are the opportunities for people to do dumb things where they lose a lot of cash. I've done it myself.

It is the worst. Like you sit there and you're just angry over something missing. So you just keep putting in 20 bucks, 25 bucks, 50 bucks, next player to catch a pass, and then you fail. And that's where you lose a lot of your cash. I don't believe we're in any danger of sports betting going away. Like people want to make a big deal of this and sports betting's in jeopardy. It is not.

because these leagues know how much of an important factor it is in their success. They know this. They are not stupid. They are well aware that sports betting is part of why, especially in the NFL, things have become so popular. And you can say that's degenerate activity and that's terrible and you're awful. So be it. People are into it. And I will tell you flat out about me and I know this about me.

And you can say, Josh, that's problematic. Like, if I'm not betting on last night's Thursday night game, if I'm not taking passing yardage props and that, I would not even bother turning that football game on. I want to watch the Eddie Murphy documentary. I would have watched something else. So the NFL knows that. They're not stupid. Like, who the fuck outside of New York, maybe, and Boston would want to turn on and watch one good team and one god-awful team? Who would want to watch Justin Fields play quarterback last night if he didn't have some action?

or your fantasy team. And the NFL knows that. They're not dumb. Do you think that Roger Goodell is stupid? Do you think the people that run baseball, hockey, all these sports? Do you think they're dumb? There are so many events being watched, bad events, bad sporting events being watched because of the action that's on them.

You want to lose that? Do you think 20 million people are watching a Thursday night football game between the Patriots and the Jets because of the love of football? Obviously, the majority of those people are. but if you're someone that's not taking the prop bet on the passing yards at the spread or whatever you're probably not because there are other options there's multiple documentaries i'm trying to watch the posh spice documentary i want to watch the documentary about any murphy there's a lot of stuff i'm looking for and i would much rather be watching that over this but hey it's fun and i got some

action on i feel like i'm part of the game boom and they know that they are not dumb just like they knew when fantasy football altered the way people felt about sports or fantasy baseball hot stove, not hot stove, but whatever they call that. They know that. They're well aware. So I don't think betting's going anywhere. And I don't think the main prop bets, you know, receptions or yards, passing yards, rushing attempts or any of that. And again, those are all things that you could, in theory, screw with over the course of a game. But I don't think those are going anyway, nor should they go anywhere. All right, more to come.