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Over the years, as sports betting has become more of a norm, lines have been crossed.
In 2023, several NFL players were suspended for multiple games for violating the league’s gambling policy. Later that year, Iowa and Iowa State athletes were punished. A year later, Shohei Ohtani found himself in controversy after millions of dollars under his name were paid for gambling debts. In the end, the FBI found out that it was his former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, who stole his money to pay his own losses.
That April, NBA player Jontay Porter was permanently banned from the NBA after retiring early to get out of a large gambling debt so he and his co-conspirators could win bets on his performance.
But this year, the FBI’s involvement grew as higher-profile athletes were accused of serious wrongdoing.
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(Left) Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier III (2) controls the ball against the Philadelphia 76ers in the second quarter at the Wells Fargo Center. The action took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Feb. 5, 2025. (Center) Cleveland Guardians pitcher Emmanuel Clase (48) reacts in the ninth inning against the New York Yankees during Game 4 of the American League Championship Series for the 2024 MLB playoffs at Progressive Field. The game was played in Cleveland, Ohio, on Oct. 18, 2024. (Right) Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups takes a first-half timeout against the Golden State Warriors at the Moda Center. The game was played in Portland, Oregon on April 11, 2025. (Kyle Ross/Imagn Images; David Dermer/Imagn Images; Troy Wayrynen/Imagn Images)
Perhaps the biggest takedown was of three NBA figures linked to an investigation with La Cosa Nostra. Terry Rozier, Chauncey Billups and Damon Jones were all arrested in October and charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering.
Rozier was placed on leave and under investigation by the NBA in February as a result of a 2023 game in which he played less than 10 minutes for the Charlotte Hornets. Rozier reportedly told a childhood friend, Deniro Laster, that he would take himself out of a game early, citing an injury, so that Laster could place bets based on the information.
Neither Hornets officials nor betting companies were made aware of Rozier’s plan, according to the indictment, and Rozier was not listed on the team’s injury report. Laster allegedly sold this information to other co-conspirators, and several people bet a total of about $200,000 on Rozier’s “under” prop bets to hit both parlay and straight bets. After Rozier played just nine minutes and never returned, the bets won. Rozier and Laster counted winnings at Rozier’s home in Charlotte about a week later, the indictment states.
Billups, the Portland Trail Blazers head coach, and Jones, a former player and coach, are said to have participated in rigged poker games. Billups and Jones were allegedly dubbed “face cards,” who an indictment stated were “members of the fraud squads and received a portion of the criminal proceeds in exchange for their participation in the scheme.” The scheme resulted in victims losing at least $7.15 million dating back to April 2019, according to the Justice Department.
(Left) Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups talks to a referee during a first half timeout against the Sacramento Kings at the Moda Center in Portland, Ore., on Oct. 10, 2025. (Right) Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier (2) walks off the court after the game against Detroit Arena, Michigan, at Detroit Caestons, Michigan. 12 November 2024. (Jaime Valdez/Imagn Images; Rick Osentoski/Imagn Images)
Billups is not listed in the sports betting scandal that led to Rozier’s arrest. However, the DOJ cited a game between the Trail Blazers and the Chicago Bulls on March 24, 2023, the day after Rozier’s alleged wrongdoing, in which a co-conspirator, “an NBA coach at the time,” allegedly told a longtime friend, who is also a defendant in the rigged poker scheme, that the Blazers team would be the “best game pick” that night and that night would be “a better sit-draft” team. players. The rest of the players had not yet been public information. The team’s top four scorers, including Damian Lillard, did not all play that night as other co-conspirators reportedly bet more than $100,000 in total against Portland. The “co-conspirator” in question is listed as a former NBA player whose career spanned from “approximately 1997 to 2014” and “an NBA coach since at least 2021.” Only Billups meets that criteria.
Jones allegedly told someone close to him that a “prominent” player on the Lakers would not play on February 9, 2023, before the information was public, and told the person to make a “big bet” on their opponent. The DOJ says the player was eventually ruled out with a lower-body injury — ESPN has reported that the player in question is LeBron James, who was ruled out with an ankle injury. The game in question took place two days after James scored 38 points to become the NBA’s leading scorer. Jones also reportedly provided apparent inside information about another “one of the Lakers’ best players” 11 months later regarding an injury likely to affect his performance, which ultimately backfired when the player “performed well” and the Lakers won.
The three individuals have all pleaded not guilty, while Rozier and Billups remain on administrative leave.
Weeks later, the FBI announced the arrests of Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, who were placed on leave by Major League Baseball over the summer.
Officials said in an indictment that from May 2023 to June 2025, Clase agreed with a co-conspirator to “throw specific pitches in certain MLB games” so that the bettors they allegedly colluded with “would benefit from illegal betting based on this insider information.” Ortiz reportedly joined the scheme in June 2025.
Cleveland Guardians pitcher Emmanuel Clase during a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants in San Francisco on June 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, file)
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The indictment said Clase was conferring with a player about throwing a ball at first pitch in a bullpen when he was brought into games in relief. The indictment pointed to instances in specific games, including May 19, 2023 vs. New York Mets; June 2, 2023, vs. Minnesota Twins; and June 7, 2023 against the Boston Red Sox.
Clase allegedly began soliciting and receiving bribes and kickbacks to agree to throw the specific pitches in April, according to the indictment. In one instance, Clase allegedly used his phone in the middle of a game to coordinate with a player on a pitch he wanted to throw. Bettors reportedly won $400,000 from betting platforms on pitches thrown by Clase between 2023 and 2025.
When Ortiz allegedly joined the scheme, the indictment said, he agreed to throw balls over strikes on certain pitches in exchange for bribes or kickbacks. He reportedly agreed to throw a ball on June 15 against the Seattle Mariners for about $5,000 in his first pitch in the second inning. The indictment said Ortiz agreed to throw a ball on June 27 against St. Louis Cardinals for $7,000 in his first pitch in the third inning.
The FBI also busted an illegal sports betting ring allegedly run by Joseph M. “Little Joe” Pernaidentified as a member of the Lucchese crime family in New Jersey, where two of the 14 arrested were former NCAA wrestlers. Both former wrestlers were charged with extortion in the first degree, money laundering by promoting in the first degree, conspiracy in the second degree, promoting gambling by bookmaking in the third degree and possession of gambling records in the third degree.
MLB announced in February that it had fired longtime umpire Pat Hoberg for sharing his legal sports betting accounts with a friend who bet on baseball games and knowingly deleting electronic messages relevant to the league’s investigation. The league opened an investigation into Hoberg last February after a sports book brought it to the attention of officials.
The league said that while the investigation did not reveal evidence that he personally bet on baseball or rigged games, MLB senior vice president Michael Hill recommended on May 24 that Hoberg be fired. Hoberg was not a referee last season. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred upheld Hill’s decision.
MLB umpire Pat Hoberg looks on during a game between the Minnesota Twins and Chicago Cubs on May 12, 2023 at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images)
In September three Division I college basketball players, Mykell Robinson, Steven Vasquez and Jalen Weaver, were permanently banned from the NCAA for allegedly playing their own games. The NCAA stated that the three players bet on each other’s games and/or provided information that enabled others to do so during the 2024-25 regular season, and that two of them even manipulated their performances to ensure that certain bets were won.
39 states, Washington, DC and Puerto Rico currently have some form of legalized sports betting. So it is hard to imagine that we have seen anything but the tip of the iceberg.
