At least 20 players and gamblers indicted for fixing college and pro basketball games amid ongoing investigation

At least 20 players and gamblers indicted for fixing college and pro basketball games amid ongoing investigation Click here to listen to this article Share via A federal indictment charges more than 20 people, including at least a dozen college basketball players, with fixing games for gamblers from 2022-2025. Former LSU star and Chicago Bulls player Antonio Blakeney is the most prominent athlete indicted. The NCAA has already stripped eligibility from 11 athletes at seven schools and continues investigating nearly 40 more for sports betting violations. At least 20 people allegedly colluded with known gamblers to fix basketball games, according to a federal indictment filed Thursday. The indictment filed in Philadelphia cites charges of “bribery in sporting contests” and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, to fix men’s college and Chinese professional basketball games. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced the sweeping indictment that involves players from 17 college teams from 2022 through 2025. The scheme also involved two gamblers - Shane Hennen and Marves Fairley - who were indicted in October for their alleged role in an NBA sports gambling scheme that included Miami Heat star Terry Rozier. The most prominent player indicted Thursday was Antonio Blakeney , the leading scorer at Louisiana State in 2016-2017 and a veteran of two seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The shooting guard has played for professional teams in China, Israel and Bahrain since last playing in the NBA in 2019. According to the indictment, the scheme began with attempts in the 2022-23 season to fix games in the Chinese Basketball Association. Blakeney, who played for the Jiangsu Dragons and led the league in scoring with 32.1 points a game, is alleged to have been recruited by Hennen and Fairley to shave points. Hennen and Fairley were included in the indictment along with others who worked as AAU coaches or personal trainers and recruited players to shave points, often in the first halves of games. Prop bets - wagers on specific events or occurrences within a game that aren’t tied to the final score - also were placed on certain outcomes based on the agreements with players. Payments of as much as $20,000 were made to players, the indictment alleges. Hiltzik: The NBA’s gambling scandal was utterly predictable - and other pro sports will be next The NBA’s gambling scandal is exactly as bad as could be expected, but no one can say it’s a surprise “Protecting competition integrity is of the utmost importance for the NCAA. We are thankful for law enforcement agencies working to detect and combat integrity issues and match manipulation in college sports,” NCAA president Charlie Baker said in a statement Thursday. “The pattern of college basketball game integrity conduct revealed by law enforcement today is not entirely new information to the NCAA. Through helpful collaboration and with industry regulators, we have finished or have open investigations into almost all of the teams in today’s indictment.” Colleges under investigation include DePaul, Saint Louis, La Salle,...

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