The integrity of college sports in America is being questioned again with a federal indictment that alleges point shaving by a large group of college basketball players.
According to court documents filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 26 people are alleged to operate a point-shaving scheme and have been hit with various charges that include bribery in sporting contests, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud.
The alleged misconduct involved NCAA and Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) games, with several defendants having ties to an ongoing NBA and rigged poker game case. The defendants with ties to the gambling schemes are Shane Hennen and Marves Fairley.
CBA player recruited by ‘fixers’
According to the indictment, between September 2022 and February 2025, several defendants in the case recruited an active CBA player to influence the outcomes of games. The conspirators allegedly bribed the CBA player to underperform, causing their respective teams to fail to cover point spreads set by various sportsbooks. The alleged bribes allowed the conspirators to place large wagers against the teams of its recruited CBA player.
“The point-shaving scheme corrupted the integrity of CBA sporting contests and of the sportsbooks accepting wagers on those contests and caused sportsbooks and individual sports bettors to suffer financial losses,” reads the indictment.
The indictment points to an alleged contest in March 2023, when the conspirators wagered $198,300 with a retail BetRivers Sportsbook in Philadelphia on a CBA game to cover a point spread. The defendants allegedly conspired with a CBA player to underperform during the contest. As a result of the player’s poor performance, the conspirators’ wagers won. The conspirators communicated their plans with the CBA player via text messages.
“Nothing guaranteed in this world but death, taxes, and Chinese basketball,” read a text.
The CBA player in question, Antonio Blakeney, received over $200,000 in bribe payments. Before playing in the CBA, Blakeney spent time in the NBA with the Chicago Bulls. He also had stints in the G League and with several teams in the Middle East.
Gambling scheme trickles down to NCAA basketball
Fairley, Hennen, Blakeney and other co-defendants allegedly expanded the gambling scheme to college sports by recruiting NCAA players to accept bribe payments in exchange for influencing the outcome of games. The “fixers” recruited the NCAA players to “ensure that their team failed to cover the spread of the first half of a game or an entire game.” The fixers used multiple sportsbooks to disguise the unusual betting behavior on NCAA games.
The suit details the scheme involving 39 NCAA college basketball players across 17 schools.
The players were allegedly offered bribe payments that ranged between $10,000 and $30,000 per game if they participated in the scheme. In some instances, multiple players from one school were recruited to ensure the success of the illicit operation. The fixers also used proxy bettors to place bets across multiple operators to evade detection.
If the wagers won, the fixers allegedly traveled to campuses to make cash bribe payments to players. The defendants conspired to fix more than 29 games in less than two years. There were also instances in which their alleged scheme failed, resulting in lost wagers.
NCAA responds to latest gambling scandal
The NCAA responded to the recent allegations as it deals with the proliferation of gambling.
“Protecting competition integrity is of the utmost importance for the NCAA,” said President Charlie Baker in a statement. “We are thankful for law enforcement agencies working to detect and combat integrity issues and match manipulation in college sports. The pattern of college basketball game integrity conduct revealed by law enforcement today is not entirely new information to the NCAA. Through helpful collaboration and with industry regulators, we have finished or have open investigations into almost all of the teams in today’s indictment.”
The NCAA initiated investigations into roughly 40 student-athletes, with several leading to sanctions that include defendants in the alleged scheme. Last year, former NCAA basketball players Cedquavious Hunter and Dyquavian Short were deemed permanently ineligible after admitting to point-shaving during last year’s college basketball season.
Short and Hunter are both named in the federal indictment in Pennsylvania. The schools that have student-athletes embroiled in the latest sports betting controversy include:
- Abilene Christian
- Alabama State
- Buffalo
- Coppin State
- DePaul
- Eastern Michigan
- Fordham
- Kennesaw State
- La Salle
- New Orleans
- Nicholls State
- North Carolina A&T
- Northwestern State
- Robert Morris
- Saint Louis
- Southern Miss
- Tulane
The NCAA is also aiming to combat gambling-related incidents and harassment by advocating for the elimination of player props for contests sponsored by the organization.
Baker is asking gambling regulators across the country to “adjust state laws and regulations” to prevent licensed sportsbooks from offering NCAA player prop markets.
The NCAA made an initial request to ban NCAA player prop markets in 2023.
“The association has and will continue to aggressively pursue sports betting violations in college athletics using a layered integrity monitoring program that covers over 22,000 contests, but we still need the remaining states and regulators to eliminate threats to integrity to better protect athletes and leagues from integrity risks and predatory bettors,” said Baker.
