Suspicious betting patterns emerging in sports wagering now
By Phil Mushnick
Published March 14, 2024, 10:27 p.m. ET
What should’ve been the biggest story of the week — five Division I college basketball games being examined for highly suspicious or “irregular” betting patterns can’t compete with the latest speculation of free-agent linebackers of varied achievement. According to multiple reports and the schools’ acknowledgments, four of those games include Temple’s team and the other was played by Loyola (Md.). Both teams had rotten seasons.
But the most conspicuously suspicious among the games in question was University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) at Temple on March 7, a barely contested 100-72 UAB win. As curious games go, this one stood out for not standing out. It was a so-what game between a 19-11 visitor and 11-19 Temple. Not a game of national note, which may not have been a coincidence. In the afternoon before the game, the line soared from UAB giving 1 ½ or 2 to giving 8 — and on the road — an enormous move that could only leave a stink given the final score. There was no good reason — not an injury or suspension — that could explain such sudden, one-way, heavy action on a visiting team. And these days, sophisticated game-fixers would avoid suspicions and detection by spreading their action among several legal bookmakers as there are now so many to choose from. That would prevent the line from sudden surges into shady territory.
Perhaps a two-point move would go unnoticed, but not six. That would ring the alarm that has been rung.
The most glaring in-game stat was that UAB outrebounded Temple by a stop-right-there 41-19. And UAB had 10 offensive rebounds to Temple’s one. Impossible to ignore as rebounds so often reflect effort. Less remarkable but nonetheless noteworthy was that Temple, which this season shot 72 percent from the foul line, was 16-for-24, 66 percent, and its average of six steals per game declined to three.
My educated guess is that if any of these games are found to have been fixed they’re inside or at least neighborhood jobs bereft of sophistication. Several players, in a losing season and with minimal professional basketball futures — not to mention the get-rich-quick commercial prompts that daily flood their senses — appeared to have had exceptionally bad games.
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By Phil Mushnick
Published March 14, 2024, 10:27 p.m. ET
What should’ve been the biggest story of the week — five Division I college basketball games being examined for highly suspicious or “irregular” betting patterns can’t compete with the latest speculation of free-agent linebackers of varied achievement. According to multiple reports and the schools’ acknowledgments, four of those games include Temple’s team and the other was played by Loyola (Md.). Both teams had rotten seasons.
But the most conspicuously suspicious among the games in question was University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) at Temple on March 7, a barely contested 100-72 UAB win. As curious games go, this one stood out for not standing out. It was a so-what game between a 19-11 visitor and 11-19 Temple. Not a game of national note, which may not have been a coincidence. In the afternoon before the game, the line soared from UAB giving 1 ½ or 2 to giving 8 — and on the road — an enormous move that could only leave a stink given the final score. There was no good reason — not an injury or suspension — that could explain such sudden, one-way, heavy action on a visiting team. And these days, sophisticated game-fixers would avoid suspicions and detection by spreading their action among several legal bookmakers as there are now so many to choose from. That would prevent the line from sudden surges into shady territory.
Perhaps a two-point move would go unnoticed, but not six. That would ring the alarm that has been rung.
The most glaring in-game stat was that UAB outrebounded Temple by a stop-right-there 41-19. And UAB had 10 offensive rebounds to Temple’s one. Impossible to ignore as rebounds so often reflect effort. Less remarkable but nonetheless noteworthy was that Temple, which this season shot 72 percent from the foul line, was 16-for-24, 66 percent, and its average of six steals per game declined to three.
My educated guess is that if any of these games are found to have been fixed they’re inside or at least neighborhood jobs bereft of sophistication. Several players, in a losing season and with minimal professional basketball futures — not to mention the get-rich-quick commercial prompts that daily flood their senses — appeared to have had exceptionally bad games.
Read the rest (free, no need to sign up or anything) -
Temple and Loyola (Md.) Basketball Under Investigation for Point Shaving
Temple and Loyola’s basketball programs are under investigation for an alleged match fixing. Why and what’s going to happen?
www.thesportsgeek.com
Suspicious betting patterns emerging in sports wagering now
Don’t know who Bob Dylan has for his Final Four, but he must’ve had gambling in mind when sang, “It’s a hard rain that’s a-gonna fall.”
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