A suspected gambling ring under federal investigation for its role in two NBA betting cases also was involved in unusual wagering activity on at least three men’s college basketball programs this season, ESPN reported Monday.
Sportsbook accounts connected to the gambling ring bet against Eastern Michigan, Mississippi Valley State and North Carolina A&T, according to ESPN, which cited anonymous sources.
Three North Carolina A&T players were suspended indefinitely last week “for violating team rules,” though it was not clear if the statement from men’s basketball coach Monté Ross had any connection to the gambling allegations.
According to ESPN, some of the same sportsbook accounts also placed large wagers on prop bets involving former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter in two games during the 2023-24 NBA season and then-Charlotte Hornets guard Terry Rozier in 2023.
Porter has admitted to manipulating his performance during games for gambling purposes and has been banned from the NBA for life. Rozier declined last week to comment on a reported investigation into unusual betting on his performance in a game.
The sportsbook accounts linked to the gambling ring also wagered on a Temple game flagged for suspicious betting last March.
“The NCAA takes sports betting very seriously and is committed to the protection of student-athlete well-being and the integrity of competition,” the NCAA said in a statement. “The Association works with integrity monitoring services, state regulators and other stakeholders to conduct appropriate due diligence whenever suspicious reports are received. Due to confidentiality rules put in place by NCAA member schools, the NCAA will not comment on current or potential investigations.”
The growth of legal sports betting has prompted concerns about increased stress on athletes and the potential for wrongdoing. In 2023, about two dozen Iowa State and Iowa athletes were criminally charged after a state investigation into illegal sports wagering; some charges were dropped after investigators were found to have misused tracking software that detected open mobile betting apps in Iowa State athletic facilities.
That same year, Alabama fired its baseball coach amid an investigation into suspicious bets involving a Crimson Tide game at LSU.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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