Alabama Baseball Betting Scandal
This is pretty amazing. This would be like walking up to a bank teller, handing them your driver's license, then saying that you're there to rob the bank.
On April 28, Bert Eugene Neff Jr. walked into the BetMGM Sportsbook at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati in possession of a large amount of cash, looking to make a huge score. His proposed wager quickly aroused concern and suspicion among the staff.
Fueled by hubris and, perhaps, desperation, Neff – an obscure youth-league coach from Mooresville, Ind., with a penchant for networking in recruiting circles—stood at the window and pleaded his case for making the huge wager to the book’s staff, the sources say. He indicated that he had inside information on the game—and he did, in the palm of his hand.
Neff was texting with Alabama baseball coach Brad Bohannon via the encrypted messaging app Signal while at the betting window, attempting to place the wager, the sources say. His texting was indiscreet, to the point that the book’s video surveillance cameras were able to zoom in on the details of Neff and Bohannon’s text exchange, making Bohannon’s name visible later in screenshots.
“[Video cameras] can see the [text] conversation back-and-forth,” a source familiar with the incident says. “It couldn’t have been any more reckless.”
The inside information that Neff had received: Alabama was scratching its ace starting pitcher for the game, Luke Holman, due to back tightness. He was being replaced by Hagan Banks, who hadn’t started a game since mid-March.
Bohannon was not an unwitting pawn, the sources say. The Crimson Tide coach was aware that Neff was placing the bets on LSU and against his team, they say. It’s unclear whether Bohannon was himself wagering on the game through Neff, but Bohannon knew what was transpiring. One of the people familiar with the investigation says Bohannon was part of an ongoing text chain with Neff and his gambling associates.
Seems like he couldn’t have been passing the info to a bigger bozo. In all reality it doesn’t seem like it would be that difficult for a player or other team personnel to win money if they had a trusted ally and put more than two seconds of planning into it. Eventually they would likely be caught but it sure seems like people could go awhile winning a lot of money.
Yeah, this just has to be happening all the time, with smaller stakes. You can bet on so many small college games these days. The Tim Donaghy basketball over/under strategy seems like it would be very easy to pull off when Presbyterian College plays Gadner-Webb for example. Just have one official make a lot of loose calls and bet the over.
Bigger bozo? Jeff Gillooly and Shawn Eckhardt would like a word.
Wow. Just…wow
Somehow theyll be the victim, will hire a great coach and win a National title in 4 years or less. book it. The SEC Difference.
I mean, they are the university home of "Stupid is as stupid does".
He treated this like he was going 5 over in a 70 mph. Sure, it's illegal, but will they stop me for it?
"Sir, I'm sorry but handguns aren't allowed inside these premises."
"But I need it to murder someone! Can't you make an exception!?"
Looks like a sure-thing first ballot election to the World's Dumbest Criminals HoF!
Stepping in a rhythm to a Kurtis Blow
Who needs to think when your feet just go
With a hippie-the-hip and a hippie-the-hop
Who needs to think when your feet just go
Bohannon, Bohannon, Bohannon, Bohannon
Who needs to think when your feet just go
Bohannon, Bohannon, Bohannon, Bohannon
James Brown, James Brown
James Brown, James Brown
Fun, natural fun.
You all can hear me singing this right now, right?
Real men of genius.
Today we salute you, Mister Sports Gambling Scandal Guy!
Instead of being discreet and winning a few hundred bucks, you were bold and went for the whole enchilada! And why not, everyone bets 6 figures on college baseball, right?
Alabama A&M is fucked
Pure stupidity. He deserves to be busted.
That there's a cheating scandal is not surprising. That it's so obvious and stupid is shocking.
For those amazed at how ridiculously stupid this all was remember that one of the most universally common attributes of criminals is just how fucking DUMB most of them are. People arent generally faced with the life choice of medical school or illegal gambling.
One study found that the average prisoner has an IQ of 76 as compared to the average American at around 100. So when you read about criminals doing really stupid things always remember why.
They ARE stupid.
I mean...isn't this a good example of survivorship bias, given that they're surveying criminals who were caught? I would expect the average IQ of people who commit criminal acts (regardless of whether the act is ever known or they are caught) is closer to the population average.
Probably a lot of confounding variables there. The smart ones may get caught less, but that could be for a variety of reasons. They may be cleverer about the crimes they commit, they may commit less risky crimes, they may commit crimes less frequently, etc.
This genius in Cincinnati seems to be low on the cleverness and subtlety scales and extremely high on the risk-taking and greed scales. Not a recipe for success.
Might depend on the type of crime. I doubt your average carjacker is a real bright mind. But things like insurance fraud, embezzlement and so on? You might get a big range there.
Bit of relevant crime trivia:
Bernie Madoff attended University of Alabama for a year. Coincidence?
[His son, Mark, exposed Bernie's crimes. Mark was a 1986 graduate of University of Michigan.]
This is an incredibly stupid post
One study cited from the 1930s. Not saying it's irrelevant, just extremely dated and subject to the biases of both the criminal justice system and academy of the era.
There is a famous 4chan post (with the usual 4chan, uh, style) that agrees with your comment. Basically, most prisoners are too dumb to know the difference between right and wrong. They are psychopath-like in their lack of empathy, or ability to think through how their crime victims would think and feel about the crime(s) the prisoner committed.
If you have served on a jury, the defendant was probably not the attractive professional in NYC that would have gotten away with murder if not for great detective work. It was probably someone who did something extremely stupid (like this case) and would have been caught by even the dumbest cops.
Makes you wonder how often this kind of thing happens.
On a sizeable scale? Not often. Influence/insider info is much easier to find in more obscure sports like this (and yes, college baseball is obscure compared to say the NBA in terms of betting volume), hence why most books don't take large wagers on such events, or at the very least wagers would require review and approval before being accepted.
These threads usually spark some concern about how easy it would be for starter X on some D1 basketball team to intentionally go under on rebounds in some non-conference game and he and his buddies would make bank. The average volume of such a wager is probably 1/100th of what was even placed on main point spread/money line for the same game and would stick out like a sore thumb. Even putting $100 on something like that would get limited after winning a few times. Casinos don't take big bets from winners on top of not taking big bets on obscure stuff.
Mort Neff >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Bert Neff.
I love cashmere
I’m really surprised by this story. In my experience with gambling establishments they are always very happy for you to win and more than willing to facilitate any advantage you can get.
This NCAA betting scandal brought to you by DraftKings.
I say this as a longtime baseball parent, with a baseball loving husband who works at Wrigley, and a son who works in professional baseball and is around players and coaches. Baseball has its share of dolts.
Dude is toast
What a moran
Don't mind me. I'm just passing through town laying down $70K on a random midweek college baseball game.
(Whistling)
do-dy-do-do-do
There's a sportsbook betting window AT a major league stadium? In Cincinnati? The irony.
They're building a Draft Kings on the premises of Wrigley Field, attached to the stadium. Right now it's just a bar/restaurant because they're waiting on their license. But it was built for betting.
did they really think betting on college baseball would go unnoticed? How many people bet on reg season college baseball? 3 at most?
I feel like the widespread adoption of sports gambling is going to have terrible consequences on our sports. I hope I’m wrong…
It's not like betting at Cincinnati Reds games has ever gotten anyone in trouble...
Nothings going to happen to Alabama over this. I guarantee it.
I forget who said it in another thread a few weeks back, but these days, the only schools that the NCAA gets to punish are the schools that allow the NCAA to do so.
Alabama doesn’t strike me as that type of school.
That seems to qualify as a degenerate gambler. Cue Nicky Santoro
Alabama . . . and scandal. They go together like . . . ?