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With the Supreme Court ending a federal ban on sports betting, the floodgates have opened for some, or all, of the 50 states to legalize wagers on athletic events. With this brave new world of gaming, we’ll see extra focus on players, officials, spreads, lines and money, all as leagues, law enforcement and sports books try to ensure that sports gambling stays incorruptible. Good luck with that: Ever since professional sports were created, players have been betting on games and gamblers have been finding ways to infiltrate the games to shift the odds in their favor. Here are 11 of the biggest scandals in sports gambling history.
In December 2019, a novel coronavirus strain (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in the city of Wuhan, China. This subreddit seeks to monitor the spread of the disease COVID-19, declared a pandemic by the WHO. Please be civil and empathetic. This subreddit is for high-quality posts and discussion. There can be no doubting the alacrity with which US bettors have taken to expanded regulated sports betting in the US this year. The bellwether in this regard is New Jersey, and by now we all know the figures: in October, sports gross revenues came in at $46.4m, four times the $11.7m from last year while in the year-to-date total revenues hit a princely $237m.
1. The Black Sox (1919 World Series): “Never before in the history of America’s biggest baseball spectacle has a pennant-winning club received such a disastrous drubbing in an opening game.” So wrote The New York Times after the Chicago White Sox were defeated 9-1 in Game 1 of the 1919 World Series, unaware that said drubbing was the result of eight players who had agreed to help throw the Series for gamblers.
The degree to which each player helped has been a debate for almost a century. Joe Jackson, banned for life along with seven teammates, hit .375 with a .956 OPS over the eight games and didn’t make an error. “How do you explain that?” Kevin Costner correctly asks in Field of Dreams. (Jackson admitted taking money.) Others, like pitcher Eddie Cicotte and Chick Gandil (allegedly the on-field mastermind) took a noticeable dive.
It turns out that the Sox throwing the Series was the worst-kept secret in baseball. Even before Game 1, the baseball world was atwitter with word that the fix was in but the commissioner’s office was apparently content to look the other way. It was until a separate case one year later that the word about 1919 got out. None of the Black Sox were found guilty in court (a rumor suggests that owner Charlie Comiskey and kingpin Arnold Rothstein helped disappear some key paperwork) but were banned from baseball for life.
2. CCNY point shaving (1950): In 1951, 32 college basketball players from seven schools around the country were caught up in a mafia-run point shaving scheme that hit four New York schools and three out-of-state teams, including Kentucky. It was a major blow for college basketball, especially considering that the bulk of the accused players had been on CCNY’s 1950 team, which became the first (and only) team to ever win the NCAA and NIT tournaments. The scandal decimated the team — which rivaled the Yankees and the Dodgers for New York sports supremacy at the time — and effectively ended the school’s affiliation with big-time athletics. Despite an insistence from a holier-than-thou Adolph Rupp that his boys weren’t involved in such nefarious schemes, Kentucky was banned for a full season as well.
3. Pete Rose: The all-time hit king was banned for life in 1989 for betting on games, something he adamently denied for 15 years. He finally admitted to betting while managing the Reds, but insisted he never bet on baseball while he was a player. Never! A few years later, that was proven to be another lie — evidence showed that Rose bet about once a day in 1987, typically for around $2,000. Though he frequently bet on his Reds, Rose vows he never bet against his own team and, despite his flexibility with the truth, this claim seems legit. No evidence has ever come out to suggest otherwise and, to be honest, it doesn’t really fit with what we know about the man.
4. Paul Hornung and Alex Karras: Before Pete Rose, there was Paul Hornung and Alex Karras. The former was an NFL MVP who set a league scoring record in 1960 that stood for 46 years (and is still the second-highest total in history). The latter was a first-team All-Pro defensive lineman. Despite their success (or maybe because of it), Hornung and Karras routinely bet up to $500 on NFL games while associating with known gamblers. Both men were contrite (Rose should have taken note of that in 1989) and, in issuing his indefinite suspension, Rozelle took care to mention that neither player bet on or against their own teams. The suspension was dropped after a full season. Hornung was later elected to the Hall of Fame and Karras starred on the 1980s sitcom Webster.
5. BC Goodfellas: The most notorious real-life gangster portrayed in Goodfellas didn’t go down for the Lufthansa heist, whacking Billy Batts, robbery, murders or aiding and abetting Joe Pesci being called a clown. Jimmy Burke (played by Robert DeNiro in Martin Scorsese’s mob masterpiece) went to jail because Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) ratted, almost off-handedly, about a point shaving scandal involving the Boston College basketball team. Hill had been arrested on various drug counts and, in his interviews, casually mentioned the BC story. Once it became clear that the Feds were interested in this to help bring down members of the Lucchese family (remember, Al Capone went down for tax evasion), Hill asked for immunity and ratted on his friends. It had been a successful partnership, for a little. After a rocky start, the syndicate began winning money on Boston College, by betting the Eagles to win games but lose against the spread or fail to cover a big spread in a game they wouldn’t have won anyway.
6. John “Hot Rod” Williams: Before he became a beloved NBA veteran, John “Hot Rod” Williams faced jail time over a 1985 point shaving scandal at Tulane that ended up shuttering the basketball program for four seasons. With a healthy mix of money, cocaine and 1980s-era bravado, five players were accused of shaving points in two games, all for a shared pot of $17,000. Williams twice went to trial – the first was declared a mistrial and the second ended with his acquittal on five counts. He went on to play 13 years in the NBA.
7. Rick Tocchet: The story of Tocchet, an NHL All-Star and Stanley Cup champion, was sordid enough. He pled guilty to involvement with a $2 million gambling ring that took bets from the rich and famous. But Tocchet’s tale took an unexpected turn when the name of Janet Gretzky, wife of the Great One, appeared in the books.
8. Art Schlichter:The fourth pick of the 1982 draft accrued nearly $1 million in gambling debts by the end of his first year in the NFL, by betting various sports including, allegedly, 10 NFL games. (Like Hornung and Karras, Schlichter was never accused of betting on his own team or using his position to influence his wagers.) Schlichter was reinstated in 1984, was out of the league by 1985, never won an NFL game and has spent the last 30 years in and out of jail. His latest offense — a scan selling phony tickets to sporting events — sent him to prison for a decade.
9. Joe Namath: After Super Bowl III, Namath, a playboy bachelor, was the biggest thing in American sports. He decided to capitalize on it by opening a night club named, cleverly, Bachelor III. Mark Kriegel wrote in his biography Namath: “ regulars included con men, fences, bookmakers and of course made men — exactly the kind of guys you’d expect to find in a hot East Side joint.”
Commissioner Pete Rozelle told Namath to sell his interest in the club because of its reputation but, rather than sell, Namath retired instead. He changed his tune one month later after a meeting with Rozelle. On his way out of the commissioner’s apartment, after agreeing to cut ties with his club, Namath was approached by Rozelle’s 11-year-old daughter. “Mr. Namath, I just want you to know that everyone in the Rozelle family doesn’t hate you.”
10. Tim Donaghy: In 2007, an FBI investigation revealed that Tim Donaghy, a longtime NBA referee, had bet on NBA games and fed information to other gamblers after falling into debt. The scandal was both a huge story and quickly faded from the public consciousness, almost like sports fans want to delude themselves into thinking that everything is always on the up and up.
11. Northwestern: Dewey Williams and a teammate were given a brief prison sentence for their role in fixing games during the 1995 season. Why gamblers didn’t trust Northwestern basketball players to simply lose games on their own, as per usual, is the enduring mystery of this tale.
As one of the 10-most active websites in the world and home to a massive community of real people, Reddit is a goldmine of interesting and useful information for just about every topic imaginable. Regardless of the topic that interests you, there is a high likelihood Reddit has an active community dedicated specifically to that topic.
The thing that makes Reddit different than other websites is Reddit is entirely community-driven. This means it isn’t just one person writing all the content from one point of view. At Reddit, anyone can chime in with a comment and you are exposed to multiple points of view and differing opinions.
When it comes to sports betting in particular, one of the big reasons I like Reddit is the best sports betting subreddits do not have an agenda – they consist of normal people exchanging ideas. The people commenting are typically are not trying to sell you something or promote any bookmakers. In the end, what you get is a more organic exchange of ideas.
The downside to visiting betting sub-reddits is that anyone can sign up for a Reddit account and comment, no expertise necassary. It’s up to you to read through the various comments, keep what you like and discard the rest. The voting system employed by Reddit does enforce some level of quality control, but it is not perfect.
For those unfamiliar with Reddit, you may find it confusing at first. Just stick with it for a while and you will get the hang of it. The basic rundown is this: Reddit.com is the main website and the homepage is a mish-mash of popular topics.
Subreddits are the individual communities within Reddit that focus on a specific topic. The URL structure for any particular topic looks like this, for example: www.reddit.com/r/sportsbetting.
During conversation, Redditors (people who use Reddit) drop the full URL when referring to other subreddits. Thus, someone might refer to the sports betting reddit as just r/sportsbetting.
Within each subreddit, people can start topics of discussion by either submitting a link to something interesting or writing a post of their own. In both cases, other people can stop by to read the post or visit the link and have a discussion around the topic at hand. Each subreddit is full of these discussion threads, so there is quite a bit of interesting content and discussion to peruse at your leisure.
Now, let’s get to the topic at hand. The following betting related subreddits are organized by category and then listed in order of the number of subscribers. In general, the more subscribers a subreddit has, the more active it is.
Note: All subscriber numbers were originally collected on 24 May, 2017 and will be updated as needed.
Best Sports Betting Subreddits
These subreddits are geared towards sports betting in general. There is no singular focus on a specific type of sport, but the content mostly centers around mainstream sports such as soccer, football, MMA, baseball, basketball, tennis and so on.
r/sportsbook: 33,833 subscribers
r/sportsbook is a great all-around sports betting community that is active, well-moderated and interesting. Daily sports betting threads for specific sports leagues are useful for timely information and opinions. You will also find the occasional highly informative post such as this one that really digs into the math behind sports betting strategies.
The subreddit sidebar (which is located on the right side of the screen when viewing from a desktop) also contains useful resources and links to other websites. For example, they link out to betting calculators, basic betting terms, statistics, other useful tools and related subreddits.
No matter which sport you enjoy, r/sportsbook is always worth a look. You will also find the occasional thread dedicated to eSports betting and other niche sports.
Visit: https://www.reddit.com/r/sportsbook/
r/SoccerBetting: 18,398 subscribers
If you like to bet on soccer, you are in luck. This is one of the best betting subreddits of all and it is all football, all the time. The sub is highly active and has a friendly community that shares everything from big scores to the latest betting tips.
The frequent live betting / watching threads are a great place to hang out during big matches and talk about what’s happening, how your bets are faring and more. Other topics of discussion include everything from betting tips to people asking how in the heck in-play betting sites are able to keep track of so many games happening all at once.
Visit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SoccerBetting/
r/SportsbookReview: 138 subscribers
This is not the largest or most active betting subreddit, but new reviews are posted just often enough to keep it fairly up to date and very useful. Anyone can visit to leave a review, and reviews are grouped together into one thread for each betting site.
5. BC Goodfellas: The most notorious real-life gangster portrayed in Goodfellas didn’t go down for the Lufthansa heist, whacking Billy Batts, robbery, murders or aiding and abetting Joe Pesci being called a clown. Jimmy Burke (played by Robert DeNiro in Martin Scorsese’s mob masterpiece) went to jail because Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) ratted, almost off-handedly, about a point shaving scandal involving the Boston College basketball team. Hill had been arrested on various drug counts and, in his interviews, casually mentioned the BC story. Once it became clear that the Feds were interested in this to help bring down members of the Lucchese family (remember, Al Capone went down for tax evasion), Hill asked for immunity and ratted on his friends. It had been a successful partnership, for a little. After a rocky start, the syndicate began winning money on Boston College, by betting the Eagles to win games but lose against the spread or fail to cover a big spread in a game they wouldn’t have won anyway.
6. John “Hot Rod” Williams: Before he became a beloved NBA veteran, John “Hot Rod” Williams faced jail time over a 1985 point shaving scandal at Tulane that ended up shuttering the basketball program for four seasons. With a healthy mix of money, cocaine and 1980s-era bravado, five players were accused of shaving points in two games, all for a shared pot of $17,000. Williams twice went to trial – the first was declared a mistrial and the second ended with his acquittal on five counts. He went on to play 13 years in the NBA.
7. Rick Tocchet: The story of Tocchet, an NHL All-Star and Stanley Cup champion, was sordid enough. He pled guilty to involvement with a $2 million gambling ring that took bets from the rich and famous. But Tocchet’s tale took an unexpected turn when the name of Janet Gretzky, wife of the Great One, appeared in the books.
8. Art Schlichter:The fourth pick of the 1982 draft accrued nearly $1 million in gambling debts by the end of his first year in the NFL, by betting various sports including, allegedly, 10 NFL games. (Like Hornung and Karras, Schlichter was never accused of betting on his own team or using his position to influence his wagers.) Schlichter was reinstated in 1984, was out of the league by 1985, never won an NFL game and has spent the last 30 years in and out of jail. His latest offense — a scan selling phony tickets to sporting events — sent him to prison for a decade.
9. Joe Namath: After Super Bowl III, Namath, a playboy bachelor, was the biggest thing in American sports. He decided to capitalize on it by opening a night club named, cleverly, Bachelor III. Mark Kriegel wrote in his biography Namath: “ regulars included con men, fences, bookmakers and of course made men — exactly the kind of guys you’d expect to find in a hot East Side joint.”
Commissioner Pete Rozelle told Namath to sell his interest in the club because of its reputation but, rather than sell, Namath retired instead. He changed his tune one month later after a meeting with Rozelle. On his way out of the commissioner’s apartment, after agreeing to cut ties with his club, Namath was approached by Rozelle’s 11-year-old daughter. “Mr. Namath, I just want you to know that everyone in the Rozelle family doesn’t hate you.”
10. Tim Donaghy: In 2007, an FBI investigation revealed that Tim Donaghy, a longtime NBA referee, had bet on NBA games and fed information to other gamblers after falling into debt. The scandal was both a huge story and quickly faded from the public consciousness, almost like sports fans want to delude themselves into thinking that everything is always on the up and up.
11. Northwestern: Dewey Williams and a teammate were given a brief prison sentence for their role in fixing games during the 1995 season. Why gamblers didn’t trust Northwestern basketball players to simply lose games on their own, as per usual, is the enduring mystery of this tale.
As one of the 10-most active websites in the world and home to a massive community of real people, Reddit is a goldmine of interesting and useful information for just about every topic imaginable. Regardless of the topic that interests you, there is a high likelihood Reddit has an active community dedicated specifically to that topic.
The thing that makes Reddit different than other websites is Reddit is entirely community-driven. This means it isn’t just one person writing all the content from one point of view. At Reddit, anyone can chime in with a comment and you are exposed to multiple points of view and differing opinions.
When it comes to sports betting in particular, one of the big reasons I like Reddit is the best sports betting subreddits do not have an agenda – they consist of normal people exchanging ideas. The people commenting are typically are not trying to sell you something or promote any bookmakers. In the end, what you get is a more organic exchange of ideas.
The downside to visiting betting sub-reddits is that anyone can sign up for a Reddit account and comment, no expertise necassary. It’s up to you to read through the various comments, keep what you like and discard the rest. The voting system employed by Reddit does enforce some level of quality control, but it is not perfect.
For those unfamiliar with Reddit, you may find it confusing at first. Just stick with it for a while and you will get the hang of it. The basic rundown is this: Reddit.com is the main website and the homepage is a mish-mash of popular topics.
Subreddits are the individual communities within Reddit that focus on a specific topic. The URL structure for any particular topic looks like this, for example: www.reddit.com/r/sportsbetting.
During conversation, Redditors (people who use Reddit) drop the full URL when referring to other subreddits. Thus, someone might refer to the sports betting reddit as just r/sportsbetting.
Within each subreddit, people can start topics of discussion by either submitting a link to something interesting or writing a post of their own. In both cases, other people can stop by to read the post or visit the link and have a discussion around the topic at hand. Each subreddit is full of these discussion threads, so there is quite a bit of interesting content and discussion to peruse at your leisure.
Now, let’s get to the topic at hand. The following betting related subreddits are organized by category and then listed in order of the number of subscribers. In general, the more subscribers a subreddit has, the more active it is.
Note: All subscriber numbers were originally collected on 24 May, 2017 and will be updated as needed.
Best Sports Betting Subreddits
These subreddits are geared towards sports betting in general. There is no singular focus on a specific type of sport, but the content mostly centers around mainstream sports such as soccer, football, MMA, baseball, basketball, tennis and so on.
r/sportsbook: 33,833 subscribers
r/sportsbook is a great all-around sports betting community that is active, well-moderated and interesting. Daily sports betting threads for specific sports leagues are useful for timely information and opinions. You will also find the occasional highly informative post such as this one that really digs into the math behind sports betting strategies.
The subreddit sidebar (which is located on the right side of the screen when viewing from a desktop) also contains useful resources and links to other websites. For example, they link out to betting calculators, basic betting terms, statistics, other useful tools and related subreddits.
No matter which sport you enjoy, r/sportsbook is always worth a look. You will also find the occasional thread dedicated to eSports betting and other niche sports.
Visit: https://www.reddit.com/r/sportsbook/
r/SoccerBetting: 18,398 subscribers
If you like to bet on soccer, you are in luck. This is one of the best betting subreddits of all and it is all football, all the time. The sub is highly active and has a friendly community that shares everything from big scores to the latest betting tips.
The frequent live betting / watching threads are a great place to hang out during big matches and talk about what’s happening, how your bets are faring and more. Other topics of discussion include everything from betting tips to people asking how in the heck in-play betting sites are able to keep track of so many games happening all at once.
Visit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SoccerBetting/
r/SportsbookReview: 138 subscribers
This is not the largest or most active betting subreddit, but new reviews are posted just often enough to keep it fairly up to date and very useful. Anyone can visit to leave a review, and reviews are grouped together into one thread for each betting site.
The reviews here are not very in-depth, but they offer the advantage of not being written by people who receive compensation from those same books. These are some of the most organic sportsbook reviews you will find on the internet.
Visit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SportsbookReview/
eSports Betting Subreddits
There are two major eSports betting communities on Reddit. One is dedicated to Counter-Strike and the other is dedicated to Dota 2. Both are full of useful information for upcoming matches, strategies for smart betting and recommendations of where to bet on eSports online.
r/csgobetting: 46,664 subscribers
Interestingly, r/csgobetting is the largest betting-related subreddit on all of Reddit. If you’re into eSports and Counter-Strike in particular, this is the subreddit for you. New threads are started each day for upcoming matches in addition to a daily thread for general CSGO betting discussion.
The daily betting threads normally get upwards of 150-200 comments each while the threads dedicated to specific matches are good for 10 or more comments at a time. You will also find the occasional general strategies thread and threads discussing which betting sites are the best for CS:GO. In all, this subreddit is chock-full of useful information.
Visit: https://www.reddit.com/r/csgobetting/
r/Dota2Betting: 1,970 subscribers
Dota2Betting is not nearly as busy as some of the other subreddits discussed here, but it is still worth browsing if you bet on Dota2. You can expect to find at least two or three new threads each day. The Dota 2 subreddit consists primarily of daily predictions threads along with the occasional thread for individual matches or big events.
The Dota2 betting subreddit has lost a good deal of its activity in the wake of the Valve skins betting scandal that resulted in the closure of many skins betting sites, but you can still find a good deal of discussion and commentary useful for regular real-money betting. The sidebar also contains a number of links that you will find handy for statistics and betting research.
Visit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Dota2Betting/
Horse Racing
Horse racing betting is a bit of a slow topic at Reddit, but there are still a couple horse racing betting subreddits that you may find helpful.
r/horseracing: 3,810 subscribers
Sports Gambling Subreddit Sites
The general horseracing subreddit is fairly active considering it has fewer than 4,000 subscribers. New threads are started daily, although the discussion does not often exceed 5 or 10 comments. Bigger events such as the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes do result in a significant amount of discussion however.
This subreddit is open to all horse racing discussion, but it definitely has an emphasis on races held in the USA. Threads started in this subreddit cover a broad range of topics including everything from upcoming race previews to basic handicapping questions to people posting screenshots of winning tickets.
Visit: https://www.reddit.com/r/horseracing/
Sports Gambling Subreddit
r/HorseRacingUK: 302 subscribers
Sports Gambling Subreddit Games
Whereas r/horseracing focuses on the US racing scene, r/HorseRacingUK is all about horse races hosted in the UK. This subreddit is the least active of all we have discussed today, but the occasional news article and daily tips threads do offer some interesting and useful commentary that will help you in your handicapping endeavors.
Sports Gambling Subreddit Websites
Visit: https://www.reddit.com/r/HorseRacingUK/
