The British Basketball League folded in 2024, but the league is still causing major fallout around the FIBA world after a major betting scandal.
Key takeaways
- A FIBA investigation resulted in lifetime bans and fines for multiple former Brtish Basketball League players.
- Among those permanently banned include Quincy Taylor, Charleston Dobbs, Shakem Johnston, and Padiet Wong.
- The case adds to a growing list of international betting scandals across sports as the latest major case as a consequence of widely legalized sports betting.
According to a release Monday, a match-fixing and regulation breach investigation found five former Surrey Scorchers players engaged in corrupt activity, including manipulating game outcomes and failing to report it during the 2022-23 season.
A pair of players, 34-year-old guard Quincy Taylor and 31-year-old forward Charleston Dobbs, face lifetime bans in Great Britain and worldwide, as well as £3000 fines (about $4000 USD) as part of the FIBA-managed investigation and disciplinary process.
Three additional former athletes, forward Shakem Johnston, and guards Padiet Wang and Joshua McFolley, also face lengthy suspensions, with Johnston and Wang banned for life worldwide. Notably, Wang represented South Sudan internationally in competitions as a member of the national team.
“FIBA, the British Basketball Federation, its members, namely Basketball England, Basketball Scotland and Basketball Wales, as well as the British National Championship Leagues, are jointly committed to a zero tolerance to betting and corruption in basketball in Great Britain,” the statement read.
None of the five players appealed their suspensions despite being allowed to do so.
Furthermore, one additional athlete, Dean Wanliss, also formerly of the Scorchers, was found to bet on basketball matches between 2019-2021, in breach of regulations, and faces a £3000 fine and a three-year suspension.
The British Basketball Federation also recommended the completion of “appropriate awareness training related to anti-corruption and betting in sport”.
Betting scandals continue to spread worldwide
This scandal is just the latest in a long list of athletes and coaches illegally betting on sports the world over. Just a handful of weeks ago, another scandal rocked British sports after English darts player Andy Jenkins received an 11-year ban for match-fixing.
“This case sends a strong and unequivocal message to all sportspeople: if you fix matches, you are likely to be caught and face serious consequences,” Commission Director of Enforcement, John Pierce said of Jenkin’s suspension at the time. “Betting customers in Britain deserve confidence that the markets they engage with are fair and free from corruption.”
It also isn’t just smaller sports and minor leagues facing these problems either. Just recently, Major League Baseball had a crisis when former top umpire Pat Hoberg was found to be in violation of sports betting protocols, while the NBA perhaps most famously faced a major scandal when former Toronto Raptor Jontay Porter illegally aided a group of bettors by manipulating his Over/Under totals.
