The Miami Dolphins haven’t had much luck on the football field this season. But the team’s owner has vaulted to the top of the NFL in another respect: rewriting the rules of ticket scalping.

In September, the Dolphins went public with a plan to significantly curtail the number of tickets it sells to independent brokers. The goal, the team said, was to make sure fewer tickets ended up being sold to fans of visiting teams. But according to one broker who was cut off, the Dolphins gave a big chunk of these tickets to one firm...