Despite this relative success, the NBA has pursued various gambits and rule changes to boost fans’ and players’ interest. The league this year introduced new, minimum-game requirements for players to qualify for awards, which are often tied to lucrative incentives in players’ contracts. It fines teams for unnecessarily sitting out star players and prohibits them from resting multiple marquee players in the same game. The league also created a new in-season tournament, modeled after those in European sports, called the “NBA Cup,” in which all 32 teams compete on special courts painted with custom graphics.

What NBA commissioner Adam Silver hasn’t given similar attention to is the rise of legal sports gambling and the associated risks to the league’s competitive integrity. Advance knowledge of a player’s availability for a given game has major implications for gamblers and sports-betting services.