A small group of gamblers repeatedly made successful bets against the same small-conference college basketball teams last season, ESPN's David Purdum reports.
Key Takeaways
- Nine sportsbooks reported suspicious activity traced back to the same gambling group.
- The alleged leader of the ring sells picks online but denied any involvement.
- Gamblers created new accounts or use dormant accounts to place suspicious wagers.
Documents obtained by ESPN showed members of the gambling ring made suspicious wagers - which were flagged by nine sportsbooks in 13 states and one Canadian province - on at least 11 games from Dec. 1, 2024, to mid-January 2025.
The abnormal activity was detected by IC360, an integrity and compliance monitoring firm that constantly scans betting markets for irregular wagers, patterns, and behaviors.
IC360 was alerted after the group continually won large-money wagers betting against the same teams.
Transaction histories from the accounts show the bettors would either create new sportsbook accounts or log into accounts that had been inactive for weeks to place large wagers on first-half spreads.
Sportsbooks also revealed similar patterns from the same group of individuals involving first-half spreads during the 2023-24 college basketball season.
One operator claimed several bettors were linked to “the main syndicate suspect,” Marves Fairley, who sells betting picks online. Fairley denied any involvement, ESPN reports.
NCAA, authorities investigate
The NCAA has spent more time and effort protecting and upholding the integrity of its events recently. That includes President Charlie Baker campaigning for sportsbooks to remove college player props from their lists of available markets, as well as conducting investigations into different scandals across the country.
While the NCAA aims to clean up its competitions, The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has spent months conducting interviews with NCAA student-athletes and officials in an effort to crack down on point-shaving.
The FBI has joined them for these interviews and has gathered substantial evidence of plans to fix the outcome of various basketball games, sources told ESPN.
The FBI is reportedly preparing to present indictments.
Details of unusual activity
Five of the six schools involved in these games are already part of the NCAA's investigation of 13 former players for participating in gambling schemes: Eastern Michigan, Mississippi Valley State, New Orleans, North Carolina A&T, and Temple.
However, the first report of suspicious activity involved Stony Brook and Norfolk State. One “relatively dormant” account submitted nine $300 bets on Norfolk State to cover the first-half spread, while several customers at a separate sportsbook opened new accounts and made first wagers in “excessive amounts” on Norfolk State, documents revealed.
Three weeks later, a group of bettors at Harrah’s Gulf Coast in Biloxi, Mississippi, wagered tens of thousands of dollars on Tulsa to cover against Mississippi Valley State and Wright State to cover the first-half spread against Eastern Michigan. All the bets won.
“At this time, there is belief of a potential tie between these bettors, and bettors who placed suspicious wagers on First Half markets in flagged games last season,” an IC360 report stated the following day.
