(SRN NEWS/AP/97.5 Glory FM) – An investigation into a sprawling betting scheme to rig NCAA and Chinese Basketball Association games has ensnared 26 people, including more than a dozen college basketball players who tried to fix games as recently as last season, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
The 26 include current Kennesaw State University (KSU) guard Simeon Cottle and former teammate forward Demond Robinson.
The scheme generally revolved around gamblers who placed bets and recruited players with the promise of a big payment in exchange for purposefully underperforming during a game, prosecutors said. Those fixers would then bet against the players’ teams in those games, defrauding sportsbooks and other bettors, authorities said.
Calling it an “international criminal conspiracy,” U.S. Attorney David Metcalf told reporters in Philadelphia that this case represents a “significant corruption of the integrity of sports.” The indictment suggests many others, including unnamed players, had a role in the scheme but weren’t charged, and Metcalf said the investigation was continuing.
The indictment is the latest gambling scandal to hit the sports world since a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision unleashed a meteoric rise in legal sports betting.
It follows a federal takedown of illegal gambling operations linked to professional basketball, NCAA lifetime bans on at least 10 basketball players for betting and two Major League baseball players facing federal charges that they took bribes to help gamblers.