NBA Insider Shams Charania Is Blamed For Manipulating NBA Draft Report

One of the most reputable and trustworthy insiders in the sports media is Shams Charania. The 29-year-old has now spent more than ten years breaking news.

NBA Insider Shams Charania Is Blamed For Manipulating NBA Draft Report

Every sport is starting to do it, but Thursday was the turn of the NBA. After ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski seemed to change the odds in favor of the incorrect player with the first choice in 2017, The Athletic’s Shams Charania also seemed to do it with the second pick this year.

Charania works for both FanDuel and The Athletic in addition to Stadium. That’s accurate. One of the top bookmakers in the United States rewards someone who can incite doubt in the betting market with a single tweet because it stands to earn greatly from it.

The first significant unknown of the draft was whether the Charlotte Hornets would select Brandon Miller or Scoot Henderson with the second choice because Victor Wembanyama was a certainty to go to the San Antonio Spurs with the first overall pick. Miller had been the clear favorite for a while, but the odds altered on Thursday in response to this tweet from Shams Charania.

He signed a contract with FanDuel in October, which of course controls a sportsbook that takes bets on such things in some jurisdictions, so this created an issue.

Brandon Miller has been projected as the No. 2 pick for several weeks, and Wojnarowski almost certainly made the prediction on Tuesday when he stated that Miller “solidified his standing as Charlotte’s choice.” However, Charania re-started the debate the day of the selection with a claim that Henderson was “gaining momentum,” which skyrocketed the chances for the eventual No. 3 pick to go second overall. This is a difficulty.

FanDuel Sportsbook had Miller at -650 and Henderson at +400 for the No. 2 selection before the NBA insider’s assertion on Thursday. However, as a result of his tweet, Miller shot up to +400 and the overwhelming favorite odds on the explosive guard coming off the board at No. 2 abruptly changed to -700.

While the NFL takes every effort to uphold and make its gambling rules clear in order to at least provide the appearance of integrity among its ranks, Charania’s tweet had the opposite effect for FanDuel.

It is clear that reporters have enormous influence in the betting world during draft season, when odds change with every small development from important insiders.

 

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