{"id":1967790,"date":"2026-06-02T10:00:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T07:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1967790"},"modified":"2026-06-02T10:00:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T07:00:21","slug":"fixing-in-sport-with-gambling-arrests-in-nba-and-mlb-what-can-the-u-s-learn-from-europes-scars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1967790","title":{"rendered":"Fixing in sport: With gambling arrests in NBA and MLB, what can the U.S. learn from Europe\u2019s scars?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For the last eight months, <\/em>The Athletic has been investigating the threat of fixing to the integrity of sport. In this second article in the series, we look at the explosion of sports gambling in the United States, the fixing scandals that have gripped basketball and baseball, and what can be learned from Europe\u2019s decades-long battles with fixing.<\/em><\/p>\n

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The arrests came like a thunderbolt on a gray fall day. One after another, each was more incendiary than the next.<\/p>\n

First, there was Terry Rozier, a veteran guard who had spent the night prior on the bench for the Miami Heat. Federal prosecutors in New York alleged that he had told a friend he would come out early from an NBA game and that friend sold the information to a group of sports gamblers. Rozier had made more than $150million in his career. He was just one game into a season that would pay him more than $26million no matter whether he played a minute on the floor. Instead, he was headed to a federal courtroom to be arraigned.<\/p>\n

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\n Terry Rozier arrives for an arraignment hearing at U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. (Michael M. Santiago \/ Getty Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Then there was Chauncey Billups. He was a Hall of Fame player for the Detroit Pistons and had remade himself into a head coach for the Portland Trail Blazers. The day after coaching a game, Billups woke up to FBI agents at his home in Lake Oswego, Washington. He was arrested because he was allegedly part of a rigged poker game ring, but someone closely matching his description was also alleged to have given information about Trail Blazers lineups to gamblers.<\/p>\n

And then there was Damon Jones. He had played 11 years in the NBA but was arrested and charged for divulging and profiting from inside information on the health of star players on the LA Lakers while he stayed close to the team as a volunteer coach.<\/p>\n

It was all a shocking moment for professional sports in America. Sports gamblers had allegedly weaponized people in and around the NBA \u2014 and more importantly the information they have access to \u2014 for their own wagers. It was a wake-up call for the incursion of legalized gambling in the country, still less than a decade old<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Those arrests came last October. In the months since, the NBA, pro sports leagues, and America have had to reckon with the risks that legalized gambling now presents. While Rozier and Billups have pleaded not guilty and deny all charges, Jones is awaiting sentencing after he admitted his guilt in front of a federal judge in April<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n
\n \"The<\/p>\n
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\n The NBA players, coaches and gamblers at the center of a federal betting investigation\n <\/div>\n
\n The federal government has charged dozens of people in two separate gambling investigations. Here’s how the feds say they’re connected.\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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The indictments, and the case itself, broke up a scandal that had been boiling underneath the surface. It is also a problem that remains unanswered. Rozier was not the first to be charged. Jontay Porter, a former Toronto Raptors center, had been indicted and pleaded guilty<\/a> after federal prosecutors said he manipulated his own performance for the sake of sports bettors. He took himself out of two games early so they could win their prop bets on his statistics. He even bet on the Raptors. The NBA banned him; he is awaiting sentencing by a judge.<\/p>\n

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These are now the faces of an issue that the United States is just the latest to deal with. Sports gambling scandals have consumed Britain and Europe and much of the world. America is just arriving at this point as it continues to integrate gambling into daily life.<\/p>\n

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\n Chauncey Billups, coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, exits Brooklyn Federal Court. (Angelina Katsanis \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The NBA is not alone. Major League Baseball put two Cleveland Guardians pitchers on leave as they face federal charges for allegedly rigging pitches for the sake of winning wagers on them<\/a>. While Rozier was a well-paid player, he was hardly one of the sport\u2019s elite. Emmanuel Clase, however, was among the very best closers in baseball. He finished third in American League Cy Young voting in 2024. But he was also in the middle of what federal prosecutors say was a multi-year scheme to bet on Clase\u2019s pitches.<\/p>\n

Clase, prosecutors said, told associates before he entered a game that he would throw a pitch for a ball or under a certain velocity. They would then bet on it. Prosecutors have identified 15 different pitches between 2023 and 2025 they say were thrown as part of that plan, including in a 2024 playoff game, and claim that he even allegedly recruited a teammate, Luis Ortiz, to join the plot. Clase and Ortiz have both pleaded not guilty and deny the charges against them.<\/p>\n

Clase tried to obfuscate his intent by using coded language, an indictment said<\/a>. He discussed the pitches as if he was discussing roosters in a cockfighting match.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrow a rock at the first rooster in today\u2019s fight,\u201d he said in a text message with one of his alleged co-conspirators.<\/p>\n

The investigation unveiled last fall shows the different ends of the spectrum in how sports can be turned and potentially criminalized. Rozier was a player on the floor who has been implicated in an alleged gambling scheme that prosecutors say ate at the integrity of the on-court product. Clase was allegedly involved in a plan to rig pitches. <\/span>Jones was someone close to the players and to the team who knew what was going on and who has pleaded guilty to selling that information to people who could make money from it.<\/p>\n

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As sport attempts to figure out how to protect itself, it must learn how to close off both avenues.<\/p>\n

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The Athletic<\/em> spoke to five experts with extensive experience of fighting match-fixing in Europe about what lessons can be learned. Two spoke on condition of anonymity owing to their involvement in sensitive ongoing cases.<\/p>\n

Several shared concern at the speed of gambling\u2019s development in the United States \u2014 and whether integrity measures could keep up with this advance. Online gambling platforms are now advertised at many sporting events in the U.S. and many broadcasters and media outlets, including The Athletic<\/em>, take betting sponsorship.<\/p>\n

\u201cEurope has been dealing with betting in sport for decades,\u201d explains Professor Richard McLaren, a Canadian doyen of sports law who led the World Anti-Doping Agency\u2019s investigation into Russian state-sponsored doping. He sits on the Court of Arbitration for Sport, is the International Basketball Federation\u2019s integrity officer, and is tennis\u2019 chief anti-corruption hearing officer. \u201cBut it\u2019s a very new phenomenon in the United States. They were last on the scene \u2014 and now they\u2019re one of the biggest problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019ve been trying to educate athletes for 15 years, and there has been some progress,\u201d says Chris Kronow Rasmussen, a Danish integrity expert. \u201cWhereas in the United States, it\u2019s barely gotten started. And with how gambling is progressing, they have to manage in one year what it took us 15 years to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Affy Sheikh, former head of integrity at British betting consultancy and analytics firm Starlizard, some of the surprise is that this gambling explosion has happened at all. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), which banned legal betting on sport outside Nevada, in 2018. As of May 2026, 39 states have legalized sports betting.<\/p>\n

\u201cA few years ago, in the post-PASPA period, U.S. sports were nearly all publicly stating how they didn\u2019t want sports betting because it was going to present an integrity risk,\u201d he remembers. \u201cFast forward to the present and many are now happy to be officially partnering with betting companies and reaping the lucrative financial benefits of doing so.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe original ask, a one percent integrity fee sourced from bookmakers\u2019 profits that would presumably have gone towards securing the integrity of those sports, fell by the wayside. The betting landscape has scaled faster than the integrity architecture.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, as a huge new market emerges, it is becoming increasingly difficult to police the fixers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cases are all becoming more complicated, because in the old days, it used to be the case that people just didn\u2019t think they\u2019d get caught,\u201d explains a top UK-based lawyer, who has worked in several recent high-profile fixing cases. \u201cNow, it\u2019s all a lot more cloak and dagger. There\u2019s a lot of code being used, burner phones which are left on buses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legal sports betting in the United States is not just growing \u2014 it is massive already, handling over $165billion in wagers each year. Watching on from Europe, experts recognize issues they have contended with before.<\/p>\n

The Athletic<\/em> asked all five for their perspective on the most pressing integrity challenges facing U.S. sport. What can be learned from Europe? And what missteps are to be avoided?<\/p>\n

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The need for a unifying system<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cThe problem for me is that in the U.S., the jurisdiction over this whole area is totally state-based,\u201d says McLaren. \u201cEach state has to do it themselves \u2014 it\u2019s not a federal matter. So now, to regulate, if you want to deal with match manipulation you have to go through criminal processes, like the FBI has done in basketball, for example. But that means sports are missing the appropriate statutory framework.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLaren points to horse racing, which in the U.S, has one single nationwide regulatory body (the Horseracing Safety and Integrity Authority), which he says has significantly improved animal abuses and racetrack conditions. \u201cThey have a wide jurisdiction wrapped up in one federal body,\u201d he says. \u201cBut there isn\u2019t one for sports gambling generally \u2014 it leaves horse racing as a standalone.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The situation has implications for athletes, who face different rules depending on their state \u2014 and who may be traded at a moment\u2019s notice. Gambling and gambling addiction is a major risk factor for potential corruption, multiple bodies including the United Nations\u2019 Office of Drugs and Crime, have warned.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom an athlete\u2019s perspective, a uniform set of (gambling) rules is really important,\u201d says the lawyer. \u201cFor example, in the U.S., you could see some states banning athletes gambling on sport altogether, others telling athletes they cannot bet on their own sport, others saying they just cannot bet on their own league. That\u2019s pretty difficult for players.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the flip-side, it\u2019s hard to know how much that plays into the match-fixing. Athletes have said as their defense: \u2018I had no education\u2019. But sometimes, it\u2019s like: \u2018Did you really ever think that fixing matches was OK?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

For Sheikh, one example that the United States might follow is the Macolin Convention \u2014 a multilateral treaty organised by the Council of Europe, which seeks to tackle match-fixing by making amendments to international law.<\/p>\n

\u201cSigning up to the Macolin convention is a signal of intent, but it\u2019s not a magic switch,\u201d he explains. \u201cStates can become party to it, but it then requires impactful laws, ratifying legislation. It\u2019s not just for Europe \u2014 Australia has signed up, for example. Theoretically, the U.S. could sign up too but the approach in the U.S. is too fragmented, with each state doing its own thing and taking its own approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cMacolin has created legal definitions and policy implications; it has also fostered good cooperation and coordination. However, there are questions about how much actual impact it\u2019s had on tackling match-fixing at the operational level.\u201d<\/p>\n

For him, the issue is not the number of regulatory bodies in the United States \u2014 it is that there is a lack of coordination between them.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt would make sense for something to bind organizations in the U.S. together,\u201d he says. \u201cRight now, if one regional sports body in the U.S. takes action against an individual for whatever reason, how is that information passed on to other organizations?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no shortage of bodies and institutions with integrity responsibilities in the U.S.. The problem is more an absence of dedicated cross-sport coordination bodies that can fill in the gaps between them and bind them. But this would require careful planning, funding, powers and capabilities, otherwise the big leagues could dominate and you\u2019d risk college sports and smaller professional sports not receiving access to the support they need.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Crucial role of low-level sport<\/h2>\n

It is always natural that cases at sport\u2019s highest level attract the most attention \u2014 in the United States, the investigations involving the Cleveland Guardians, NCAA basketball, and NBA illegal gambling schemes.<\/p>\n

But there is an iceberg effect in play \u2014 that while these are the most visible, the mechanisms which facilitate top-level fixing are reliant on lower-level sports. Here, on the borderline of professionalism, it is far easier to corrupt athletes and coaches who are not already being compensated with generational wealth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThough not as much money can be wagered, that means it\u2019s also easier for fixers to avoid detection,\u201d adds Rasmussen. \u201cAnd so if an athlete participates in those schemes, it will be undetected until a body works out that a player is placing bets in a family member or friend\u2019s name. But that will take some time to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Data collected by the Macolin Convention\u2019s advisory group in 2025, seen by The Athletic<\/em>, indicates that less than a quarter of suspicious betting patterns (23.4 percent) originate from top divisions globally. Twenty per cent, for example, are found at fourth division level or below. Eleven per cent stems from youth matches.<\/p>\n

Despite the introduction of NIL (name, image and likeness) payments<\/a> to athletes, the uniqueness of the college system means that the United States still has a massive sporting system which is open to betting markets, and where participants are not paid like professional athletes. The growth of the legal betting market is expected to lead to an increase in the size of the illegal market, potentially even opening high school sports, upon which gambling is currently outlawed in every state, to potential corruption.<\/p>\n

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What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n
\n \"NCAA<\/p>\n
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\n NCAA investigating 13 ex-players at Temple, Arizona State, four others over sports betting\n <\/div>\n
\n Schools mentioned by the NCAA were Temple, Arizona State, Eastern Michigan, New Orleans, Mississippi Valley State and North Carolina A&T.\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u201cEurope has often focused its integrity efforts on the top tiers of sport,\u201d says Sheikh. \u201cIn football (soccer), it\u2019s often the top two tiers of the national football system that get monitored for betting anomalies. And then you\u2019ve got competitions like the Euros and the World Cup that have task forces from UEFA and FIFA to protect their integrity.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut actually, when it comes to fixing, it\u2019s often the lower leagues that present the biggest risks, as they can still attract significant betting markets on events in which the participants are comparatively poorly paid. And in the United States, there\u2019s a unique situation with college sports, so to focus purely on the big leagues would be a mistake. Plus I still don\u2019t think that NIL fully addresses the vulnerability that college athletes face \u2014 the number of cases this year in college sports underlines that.\u201d<\/p>\n

One lawyer points to the example of Argentinian tennis player Nicolas Kicker, who reached a career-high ranking of 78 in 2017. The next year, he received notification of his provisional suspension from the International Tennis Integrity Association (ITIA) for match-fixing offences. He was ultimately banned for six years.<\/p>\n

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\n Nicolas Kicker was banned in 2018 for fixing games when he was younger. (Carlos Rodrigues \/ Getty Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe match-fixers got him when he was young,\u201d the lawyer explains. \u201cAs far as the panel could tell, he was not consistently doing it, but it was something he was caught up in when he was younger. The ruling forced him out of Roland Garros just as he was arriving to compete.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the point here is that he was starting to play in the Grand Slams, which is finally where you start to make money, and then incidents from three years or so earlier emerged. So it\u2019s a case of athletes doing something that feels relatively innocent to them, such as throwing a couple of games or points, where they\u2019re still told they can try and win the overall match. They\u2019re young and have no money \u2014 but then they get caught.<\/p>\n

\u201cKicker\u2019s ban was eventually reduced in part after he did educational work for the ITIA \u2014 his story shows the risks to athletes who are playing at the lower levels.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Importance of regulator independence<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cI am worried that when sport is investigating itself, that this creates a biased view,\u201d says Rasmussen, when asked to explain his major concerns. \u201cFor example, if you\u2019re wanting to look at corruption in a FIFA competition, do you really want FIFA to investigate it?<\/p>\n

\u201cIn general, sport organizations have a strong interest in not making fixing a big problem \u2014 because they want to generate money by selling their betting data. But they do want to make it a big enough issue that they can say they\u2019re doing something about it.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt also means that they\u2019re limited to investigating the athletes involved \u2014 not the network from outside the sport which might have organized the fixing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of sports bodies in Europe are commercially exposed and politically sensitive,\u201d agrees Sheikh. \u201cSo that\u2019s why there\u2019s sometimes a reluctance to do it, which again, gives you that argument towards an independent body.\u201d<\/p>\n

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What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n
\n \"China<\/p>\n
\n
\n China bans 73 people and sanctions 13 clubs in soccer corruption investigation\n <\/div>\n
\n In total, a cumulative total of 72 league points have been docked from 13 clubs across the two divisions of Chinese football.\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

For Rasmussen, in an ideal world, this body would not just possess the independence needed to carry out an investigation \u2014 but also to help stipulate what data is sold. Increasingly, the granularity of betting markets \u2014 for example, the ability to bet on whether the next pitch will be a strike or not in real-time, rather than merely on the overall match result \u2014 has led to the latest wave of fixing cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere needs to be some kind of independent body to monitor this,\u201d he says. \u201cBut there\u2019s not an example of this in Europe, it\u2019s something which one nation around the world needs to introduce, to address this problem in a proper manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others have a slightly different viewpoint \u2014 that an independent body should exist to monitor owners and directors of professional clubs or franchises. Though forms of this exist in the United States\u2019 top five sports leagues, there is limited oversight further down the pyramid.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ownership structure of teams has been a problem in some sports,\u201d explains the lawyer. \u201cThinking about some cases I\u2019ve seen, the middle men involved, or even the owner and management and people around them, has been able to influence what has been going on around the fix \u2014 even controlling selection, for example.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s an interesting angle \u2014 in terms of looking at what the United States might learn, strict controls on who owns and manages teams is only going to become more important.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The frightening implications of prediction markets<\/h2>\n

Watching from across the Atlantic, all five experts were relieved that Europe, currently, does not have to contend with prediction markets \u2014 an increasingly popular betting platform which is not yet technically classed as gambling<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Companies such as New York City-based duo Kalshi and Polymarket are the most high-profile examples, offering odds on a wide range of markets. In simple terms, they are regulated under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) at a federal level, rather than being subject to state laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re sitting right in this gap between sports betting, sports integrity, and financial markets,\u201d says Sheikh. \u201cSo they\u2019re offering similar exposure to busy markets that are restricted by states in the U.S., but because they\u2019re in an e-commerce prediction market, they don\u2019t have to abide by the same rules. It\u2019s just this definitional kind of thing. But it walks like that, talks like that, quacks like that. But legally, it\u2019s something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Infamously, Polymarket attracted attention in January when one gambler won $436,000 (\u00a3320,000) from a $32,537 (\u00a324,000) bet on the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro<\/a>. Their huge win, with the bet laid prior to the politician\u2019s capture becoming public, sparked fears of inside knowledge.<\/p>\n

Ahead of this summer\u2019s World Cup in North America, FIFA has entered a partnership with a new prediction market firm, ADI Predictstreet.<\/p>\n

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What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n
\n \"FIFA,<\/p>\n
\n
\n FIFA, Predictstreet and the controversial rise of prediction markets. Just don\u2019t call it gambling\u2026\n <\/div>\n
\n FIFA has joined the prediction-market craze for this summer\u2019s World Cup – but what are they and why are they controversial?\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Last month, the NCAA wrote to the CTFC, outlining their integrity concerns \u2014 but rather than suspending prediction markets, due to the match-fixing risk, the regulator has indicated they will be expanded.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CTFC was created to regulate markets critical to the functioning of the nation\u2019s economy, not to regulate Monday Night Football,\u201d Bill Miller, chair of the American Gaming Association, told a Senate Subcommittee in May.<\/p>\n

\n
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Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Sports leagues are unable to monitor the betting data gathered by prediction markets for suspected integrity breaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt remains unregulated,\u201d says McLaren. \u201cAnd so the market is going wild in this field because of the precision betting process it offers. You can bet on anything. So how do we draw a sharp line between what\u2019s regulated by sport, and what remains in the predictions market? Everybody\u2019s trying to puzzle that out \u2014 and I\u2019ve not talked to anybody who has good answers.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the last eight months, The Athletic has been investigating the threat of fixing to the integrity of sport. In this second article in the series, we look at the explosion of sports gambling in the United States, the fixing scandals that have gripped basketball and baseball, and what can be learned from Europe\u2019s decades-long […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1967790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1967790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1967790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1967790\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1967790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1967790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1967790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}