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The NCAA said protecting the “integrity” of its athletics is “of paramount importance” to the organization after at least 26 people were charged Thursday in connection with fixed college basketball games, and urged states to “prohibit risky betting.”
Prosecutors said the alleged participants bribed Chinese Basketball Association players in 2022 “to underperform and help ensure their team did not make up the gap in certain games and then, through various sports booksarranged for big bets to be placed on those games against that team.”
The following year, the participants allegedly expanded their scheme to the NCAA, recruiting players and paying bribes between $10,000 and $30,000 per game.
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NCAA President Charlie Baker and Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell announce gambling prevention program targeting children during a press conference at TD Garden. The program includes a school curriculum on the risks of gambling that will be implemented in schools across the state, as well as new money for research to understand the scope of the problem. (Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
According to the indictment, more than 39 players from 17 different teams attempted to fix more than 29 NCAA Division I men’s basketball games, including conference tournaments. The organizers of the alleged scheme made bets totaling millions of dollars.
“Protecting the integrity of competition is of utmost importance to the NCAA. We are grateful for law enforcement agencies working to detect and combat integrity issues and game manipulation in college sports,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a statement.
Baker said the allegations were “not completely new information to the NCAA” as it had conducted “integrity investigations on approximately 40 student-athletes from 20 schools over the past year.”
The NCAA logo on the entrance sign outside of NCAA Headquarters on February 28, 2023 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
FEDERAL PROSECUTORS CHARGE 26 PEOPLE FOR ALLEGEDLY FIXING COLLEGE BASKETBALL GAMES IN EXPANDED CONSPIRACY
The NCAA added that “11 athletes from seven schools were recently found to have bet on their own performances, shared information with known bettors, and/or engaged in game manipulation to collect on bets they (or others) placed” and have since been permanently banned.
“In addition, 13 student-athletes from eight schools (including some of those identified above) were found to have failed to cooperate in the sports betting integrity investigation by providing false or misleading information, failing to provide relevant documentation, and/or refusing to be interviewed by law enforcement personnel. None of them are competing today,” Baker added.
Baker also called on states to crack down on “integrity threats,” specifically prop betting, “to better protect athletes and leagues from integrity risks and predatory bettors. We will also continue to cooperate fully with authorities. We urge all student-athletes to make well-informed decisions to avoid jeopardizing the game and their eligibility.”
Thursday’s charges included bribery in sports competitions, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud.
“[Defendants] “aided and abetted in carrying out, attempting to carry out, and conspiring to carry out, a scheme in commerce to influence by bribery sports competitions, i.e., Chinese Basketball Association (“CBA”) men’s basketball games and National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”) men’s basketball games, with the defendants participating in different aspects of this scheme, with knowledge that the purpose of this scheme was to somehow influence those competitions by bribery,” it says the accusation.
General view of the SEC men’s basketball tournament championship game between the University of Kentucky Wildcats and the University of Florida Gators at the Georgia Dome on March 14, 2004, in Atlanta, Georgia. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
The announcement follows the federal government’s crackdown on illicit sports betting and point-reduction schemes involving the NBA in October.
