The NBA told sportsbooks on Friday that they will not be permitted to offer certain types of wagering this season, including which players record the first stat of a game, the outcome of the opening tip and taking the “under” involving players not expected to play more than a few minutes.
Additionally, the league told its teams that all players, coaches and training staffs will be required to attend “live, in-person training on the league’s sports betting rules” starting this season. Copies of the memos sent to sportsbooks and teams were obtained by The Associated Press.
ESPN first reported on the league's new policies.
The league cited examples of now-banned “first-of” markets such as those related to players “scoring the first basket, 3-pointer, rebound, assist, steal, or block, as well as wagers on if a player will miss "their first shot attempt, next shot attempt, or any attempt within a specified amount or period of game time."
Also banned: the ability for bettors to have multiple “under” wagers involving a player as part of a parlay.
The new rules, which will be applied to WNBA games starting in 2027 as well, come after the NBA had already restricted some other types of prop bets, including certain offerings involving players on 10-day or two-way contracts, wagers on turnovers or fouls, and bets on missed free throws.
Friday’s memos came nearly one full year after the league was rocked by betting scandals, ones that led to the arrests of now-former Portland coach Chauncey Billups, now-former Miami guard Terry Rozier and former NBA guard Damon Jones for their alleged involvement in sprawling gambling operations that authorities said leaked inside information about NBA players and rigged poker games backed by Mafia families.
Rozier was arrested because federal officials alleged he conspired with associates to help them win bets based on his statistical performance in a March 2023 game when he played for the Charlotte Hornets. The charges are similar to what former Toronto player Jontay Porter faced before he was banned from the league by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver in 2024.
The league also told its teams Friday that a new, AI-based data monitoring platform has been developed “that is designed to detect and investigate unusual betting activity involving NBA games or events” by analyzing injury reports, social media and wagering patterns. Similar technology has been in use by the NBA and sportsbooks for some time.
Further, the league — after countless complaints by players and coaches — said it has upgraded the protections that NBA teams will have “from harassment or threats by sports bettors." Players will now be able to opt-in to programs that can identify and delete harassment or threats on social media, and the league is also updating its fan code of conduct to further underscore how betting-related harassment is prohibited.
See AP’s full NBA coverage here
FILE - Charlotte Hornets guard Terry Rozier brings the ball down court during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the San Antonio Spurs, Friday, Jan. 19, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, File)
FILE - Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups directs his team during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Cleveland, Sunday, March 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Phil Long, File)
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Kyle Cotner knew nothing about fall foliage when he trolled his White House colleagues in 2007, telling them he was an expert despite having grown up in Florida.
When autumn rolled around, he kept up the bit, sending out weekly newsletters with foliage statistics and information to a handful of co-workers. Today, he has mastered complex mapping systems, calls himself “Leaf Daddy” and owns The Foliage Report, a website that tracks fall color from coast to coast.
Thus, he was speaking with actual authority last week when he said 2026 has been a spectacular year for foliage in New England.
“I’ve been doing this for almost 20 years, and this is the best I’ve seen of New England in that time,” he said. “2020 was a very good year, but this one seems elite to me.”
New England had adequate rain through the spring and summer, plus warm days and cool nights heading into fall, but that wasn’t the case elsewhere, he said.
This story will be updated throughout the day to add new photos. See a curated photo gallery here. The Associated Press is carrying live views of foliage in Vermont, Michigan, Colorado and Washington.
Extreme drought conditions stressed trees in Colorado, for example, leading to a quick and lackluster foliage season. Aspens in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho aren’t as golden this year, he said. But Utah is a bright spot.
“They got enough rainfall in that area,” he said. “You basically want an average amount of precipitation to really bring out the most majestic and colorful leaves.”
Fall foliage is all about trees preparing for winter, according to experts at the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension.
Leaves exist to provide food for the tree. They absorb sunlight through a green pigment called chlorophyll, and that energy is used to convert water and carbon dioxide from the air into glucose, a type of sugar. As days shorten, the tree stops making food, allowing orange and yellow pigments that have been there all along to be unmasked. When sunny days are followed by cold nights, sugars get trapped in leaves, producing red pigments.
Eventually, the layer of cells between a twig and a leaf weakens, allowing leaves to be blown down during wind and rain. The timing varies widely by location. According to Cotner’s research, foliage season starts in Alaska in mid-August and ends in Florida in late December. Hawaii is the only U.S. state without fall foliage, he said.
In Rochester Hills, Michigan, the leaves were changing colors at Yates Cider Mill, which has been in business since 1863.
“Fall is our lifeblood,” said Jared Titus, general manager of the mill. “It's not only how we sustain as a business, but it's also just our passion. Apples are what we do here.”
Patrons were taking in a trail, drinking cider and enjoying doughnuts and other apple goodies.
“It just makes incredible memories for people,” Titus said.
It's “Fritter Friday” at the mill, he added. “They're about as big as your face and just incredible.”
In Woodstock, Vermont, Osama Alshamrani from Saudi Arabia didn't expect such beautiful scenery.
“There's so many colors,” he said Friday. “I've been getting a lot of messages from my family back home and telling me, ‘Is this real? Oh, this is AI.’ I was like, ‘No, this is actually real.’”
He said he particularly enjoyed seeing the burgundy-colored leaves.
It also was the first trip to the area for Jasmine and Larry Londer, from Dallas, Georgia, who went on a hike with goats.
“That was super fun,” Jasmine Londer said.
Her husband said, “The golds here are like so much brighter than what we get in Georgia.”
For Kirk Giglio, leaf peeping provides an escape from his day job as a nurse in a cardiac and stroke unit at a Connecticut hospital. A photographer who frequently chases storms as well, he is used to studying maps and forecasts, and was hopeful by early September that this would be a good year. A recent trip to Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont with his fiancee confirmed it.
“I was just really kind of blown away,” he said, describing sunrise hikes and fog lifting to reveal vibrant colors in New Hampshire’s Crawford Notch and elsewhere. Though some spots were packed with tourists, he still found plenty of secluded and stunning scenery.
“The more I travel, the more I realize how much we take for granted up here,” he said. “In a world that is so modern and gray with these corporate, soulless colors that we see everywhere, the trees are one of the last things that make color anymore, so it’s nice to just observe, especially in a good year like this.”
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Associated Press reporters Mike Householder in Rochester Hills, Michigan, Amanda Swinhart in Woodstock, Vermont, and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this story.
A few trees hold onto their fall foliage, the Talkeetna Mountains visible in the background, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, near Chickaloon, Alaska. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Water flows down the Big Poe Creek on an autumn day in Woodward, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Autumn leaves are seen along the Siglerville Millheim Pike near Milroy, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
People look at fall foliage from Loon Mountain in Lincoln, New Hampshire, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones)
White-barked aspen trees stand among yellow and orange fall foliage on the San Francisco Peaks in Flagstaff, Ariz., Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Cheyanne Mumphrey)
A couple walks through colorful foliage after walking across a covered bridge spanning the Contoocook River, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, in Henniker, N.H. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Fresh fallen hardwood leaves cover the forest floor in Ghent, N. Y., Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Water flows down the Big Poe Creek on an autumn day in Woodward, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Water flows down the Contoocook River passing the colorful foliage of trees towards a covered bridge, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, in Henniker, N.H. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Colorful foliage adds to the view overlooking the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains at Olana, the former home of celebrated painter Frederic Church, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, in Hudson, N.Y. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
