Those points won’t shave themselves

New technology applied to an old scam, yet again:

Late in February 2024, a North Carolina basketball trainer sent a text to a DePaul men’s basketball player during halftime of the team’s game against Georgetown. He wanted to let the player know that he was happy with the performances of two of his teammates. One of them had gone scoreless. DePaul had a rough first half, too. It went into its locker room down 13.

But the trainer was pleased. According to federal prosecutors, he was part of a group of bettors who wagered $27,000 on Georgetown taking a lead of 3 or more points going into halftime, and their slips won. But there was no luck involved. The betting syndicate had four DePaul players on its team, prosecutors said, and had arranged for the four players to shave points so Georgetown could cover its first-half spread. In return, the four players received $40,000 the next day.

While DePaul was one of the worst teams in college basketball that season — it went 0-16 in the Big East and won three games all season — prosecutors say its troubles were compounded by the involvement of four players in a widespread college basketball point-shaving scheme that spanned 17 schools and at least 29 Division I basketball games. On Thursday, federal prosecutors unveiled an indictment that rocked college sports, charging 26 men with participating in a conspiracy to bribe and manipulate college basketball games involving then-active college athletes.

The indictment alleged the existence of a gambling ring that pulled in at least 39 players across mostly low and mid-major schools, 20 of whom were charged. The ring was run by a group of men who, according to the U.S. District Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, used their status and reach inside the basketball community to pull in a slew of co-conspirators.

In a 70-page indictment, prosecutors said that four players helped fix three DePaul games. Other games involved players on Abilene Christian, Alabama State, Buffalo, Coppin State, Eastern Michigan, Fordham, Kennesaw State, La Salle, New Orleans, Nicholls State, North Carolina A&T, Northwestern State, Robert Morris, Saint Louis, Southern Miss and Tulane.

Five of the players charged Thursday have been on college basketball rosters this season: Kennesaw State’s Simeon Cottle, Eastern Michigan’s Carlos Hart, Delaware State’s Camian Shell, Texas Southern’s Oumar Koureissi and Temple’s Corey “CJ” Hines. Kennesaw State said that Cottle has been suspended from the team, Texas Southern said that Koureissi has been removed from the team and Eastern Michigan said Hart was suspended from all team activities.

This issue — point-shaving in games involving non-elite programs — is going to be one of the toughest problems created by the near-ubiquitous legalization of sports gambling to address. Most of the players aren’t going to be paid much or have any serious pro prospects, it’s easier to convince players to help manipulate the score than to throw games outright, and it’s not easy to tell the difference between intentional and unintentional bad shots. I frankly don’t know what a viable solution would be.