A college basketball point-shaving scheme involving more than 39 players on 17 NCAA Division I basketball teams resulted in fixes and attempts to fix more than 29 games for millions of dollars in bets. How does sports betting work? Games can be fixed or manipulated by a single player or multiple players on one team agreeing to influence the outcome by the way they play. It allows gamblers betting on the score, who are working with the players, to make money by placing wagers with a high degree of certainty regarding the outcome. Such a scheme is known as point-shaving. Players underperform to ensure their team scores only a certain number of points by halftime or by the end of the game. They alter their performance based on the point spread on that game so that their team won’t cover the spread and their opponent will cover the spread.

How are these players fixing games? Gamblers target college players from mid-level Division I programs who weren’t making much money from NIL opportunities (Name, Image, Likeness.) They place Prop bets- wagers on specific events or occurrences within a game that aren’t tied to the final score- on certain outcomes based on the agreements with players. Deseret News states in one of their articles that a group of gamblers recruited players with promises of $10,000 to $30,000 to influence a game or a portion of the game, generally by underperforming on offense or defense, or otherwise trying to limit the number of points scored by their team. Basically, players rig games by playing poorly on purpose. They might miss easy shots like dunks and layups, slack off on defense, commit turnovers or keep the ball away from a hot shooter who isn’t in on the scheme. 20 of the 26 defendants played college basketball during the 2023-24 and/or 2024-25 seasons according to the indictment. Four of the players charged have played for their current teams in the past week. None of the allegations against them were from this season, and 3 of the 4 happened in previous schools.

Kent State is one of the schools listed in the indictment for a bet of $424,000 to cover the first half spread against Buffalo. The defendants are charged with bribery in sporting contests and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The alleged fixers are also charged with additional counts of wire fraud. The bribery charges carry a maximum sentence of five years and the fraud charges carry a maximum sentence of up to 20 years. NCAA president Charlie Baker sent a letter to state gambling regulators asking for laws to be adjusted to better protect players and the integrity of the games, specifically calling for the elimination of prop betting. U.S attorney David Metcalf added in his news conference that the victims in this case range far beyond people who lost money betting on games. “Victims in this case span every sector of American life,” Metcalf said. “The fans, the honest athletes, the teammates of these players who are working their tail off…. Everyone is victimized by that.”