Point-shaving in college basketball isn’t new. Henry Hill did it, years ago.
Still, in an age of widespread legalized, normalized, and monetized sports betting, any gambling scandal is a red flag.
On Thursday, the federal government charged 20 men in a point-shaving scheme involving 39 college basketball players with 17 Division I teams. Via David Purdum of ESPN.com, fifteen of the defendants played college basketball in the 2023-24 and/or 2024-25 seasons. The other five defendants were described as “fixers.”
Four of the players played for their current teams within the past week.
“This was a massive scheme that enveloped the world of college basketball,” U.S. Attorney David Metcalf said Thursday in a news conference. “This was a significant and rampant corruption of college athletics.”
The charges include bribery, wire fraud, and conspiracy.
As Purdum explains it, the effort began by trying to fix games in the Chinese Basketball Association. The focus shifted to college basketball games. Bribes ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 were offered, per the indictment.
The fact that this specific scheme was detected raises an obvious question: How much more of this stuff is going on, in college basketball and in other sports?
The sooner the various leagues find out, the better. And if it’s not happening, it’s even more important to put procedures in place to keep it from happening.
