A state investigation into illegal sports wagering at Iowa and Iowa State has led to criminal charges being filed against about a dozen athletes. The Alabama baseball coach, Brian Bohannon, was fired in May after being linked to suspicious gambling activity on a Crimson Tide game. The alleged suspicious gambling occurred at the BetMGM sportsbook in Great American Ballpark, home of the Cincinnati Reds, the Ohio Casino Control Commission said.
The Ohio Casino Control Commission halted all betting on the Crimson Tide starting that Sunday. On Monday, Alabama was removed from the FanDuel Sportsbook betting product in its entirety, regardless of location.
The New Jersey Division of Gaming followed suit, ending all wagering involving the University of Alabama baseball team and all associated players, including future wagers. So now a digital platform where college athletes can alert their administrations anonymously to improper or illegal conduct by coaches, teammates or others is expanding to allow them to report suspected gambling activity.
RealResponse’s partnership with U.S. Integrity, which monitors sports wagering trends in real time to detect irregularities, will come at no additional cost to some 150 athletic departments that are clients.
The service builds on a tip hotline U.S. Integrity and RealResponse unveiled in May and will give college athletic administrators a direct line to investigators.
Spokesman Nick Joos said. Iowa is not a client but has a relationship with U.S. Integrity through the Big Ten Conference, spokesman Matthew Weitzel said.
The app founder David Chadwick said a college athlete will be able go to his or her existing webpage and report suspected misuse of insider information, potential game manipulation and physical threats related to gambling, among other things. When a report comes in, administrators can request U.S. Integrity investigators to assess, verify and route the report to appropriate authorities.
Though RealResponse also works with professional sports organizations and national sport governing bodies to provide athletes, coaches and staff a way to report bad actors anonymously, the gambling reporting tool linked with U.S. Integrity currently is offered only to colleges.The public also can report gambling-related issues through school athletic websites.
