LAS VEGAS (AP) — The NCAA has found 175 violations of its sports betting policy since 2018 and 17 investigations are underway, according to a letter from the sports organization’s president obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.
NCAA President Charlie Baker included those numbers in a letter sent this week in response to a question from Rep. Dina Titus, a Nevada Democrat whose district includes the Las Vegas Strip.
The NCAA does not release details of active investigations and Baker’s letter does not list any schools or athletes. The NCAA told the AP in an email that less than 0.25% of its approximately 13,000 sporting events “are flagged for suspicious betting patterns, and a much smaller percentage contains specific, actionable information.” .
NCAA pays company investigate and report potential violations of the betting policy; many academic conferences do the same thing.
In Baker’s letter to Titus, he said athletes, coaches and administrators had committed violations ranging from $5 bets to “providing inside information” and that active investigations were of similar severity.
Some notable cases have been made public. Alabama baseball coach Brad Bohannon was fired in May due to suspicious betting activities involving his team, and Iowa and Iowa State announced a total of 41 athletes were suspected of breaking betting rules.
Legal betting flourished in the United States over the past five years, increasing the likelihood of a college sports betting scandal. NCAA bans athletes from playing the game remain strict, even if they have recently been adapted to recognize “mitigating factors” when it comes to penalizing “young people who have made mistakes”.
Baker outlined several steps the NCAA takes to ensure the integrity of its events, and the organization provided the AP with much of the same information. The NCAA places emphasis on educating athletic departments about the risks involved, and Baker said the safety and mental health of the organization’s more than 500,000 student-athletes is paramount.
“I appreciate Congress’ increased attention to the subject of sports betting,” Baker wrote. “I agree with you that in addition to the opportunities it creates, sports betting carries risks that could undermine the integrity of the competition.”
Titus, in a statement to AP, thanked Baker for the information he provided. She said she also wrote letters to major professional sports leagues.
“This type of transparency is crucial to the integrity of the game and the success of legal sports betting,” Titus said. “Now that we have answers from the NCAA, I need to hear from professional sports leagues about their efforts to protect players and the public from illegal activity.”
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