At least 20 players
Twenty-six people, the majority of whom are current or former college athletes, have been charged in a college basketball point-shaving scheme that federal prosecutors say involved more than 39 players on 17 teams. According to the indictment unsealed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Thursday, the accused attempted to fix more than 29 games.
Most of the players named no longer play college basketball, but four have played as recently as the past week: Simeon Cottle of Kennesaw State, who averages over 20 points per game and was voted Conference USA’s preseason player of the year, Carlos Hart of Eastern Michigan, Camian Shell of Delaware State, and Oumar Koureissi of Texas Southern.
arrange payments, which ranged from $10,000 to $30,000
The non-players were what prosecutors call “fixers.” It was their job to recruit players into the point-shaving scheme and arrange payments, which ranged from $10,000 to $30,000. Two of the fixers included Shane Hennen and Marves Fairley, who were also charged in the recent NBA betting scandals.
Former Chicago Bull Antonio Blakeney was named in the indictment, but has been charged separately. He was allegedly involved in recruiting players to fix games.
“Death, taxes, and Chinese basketball”
The indictment states that the scheme dates back to September 2022 and began with Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) games. Blakeney, one of the league’s top scorers, is alleged to have both manipulated his own performance for betting purposes and recruited teammates to do the same.
Hennen, Blakeney’s alleged fixer, was so confident in the CBA outcomes that he texted co-conspirators in April 2023: “Nothing gu[a]rantee[d] in this world but death[,] taxes[,] and Chinese basketball.”
The dollar amounts were so large that it’s almost unbelievable that alarm bells didn’t sound immediately and betting markets weren’t frozen. In one example from the indictment, Hennen and Fairley bet $198,300 on BetRivers that the Guangdong Southern Tigers would cover the 11.5-point spread against Blakeney’s Jiangsu Dragons.
Players texting about the fix mid-game
The schemers turned their attention to college basketball before the 2023-2024 season, attempting to recruit players “for whom the bribe payments would meaningfully supplement or exceed legitimate NIL opportunities.”
Thus, the schools that the players named in the indictment attended were mostly smaller programs in the lower levels of Division I men’s basketball: 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, and Tulane.
And again, the sums being bet were gigantic, which is likely one reason why those involved were caught. It’s just not normal to see $458,000 bet on Towson to beat NC A&T or $424,000 wagered on Kent State to cover the spread in the first half against Buffalo.
One of the more interesting schools on the list is DePaul University, one of the few named that plays in a major conference, the Big East. Once a proud, successful program in the 1970s and 1980s, DePaul has been terrible for a long time. And perhaps that is why it was easy to get multiple players from the team involved in the alleged point-shaving. If they do poorly, who would notice? The team was 3-29 in the 2023-2024 season.
texted DePaul player Mac Etienne during the game that the unnamed player needed to “chilllll the fuck out.”
They may have not even tried hard to hide it. One anecdote from the indictment states that one of DePaul’s players who was not involved in the point-shaving was playing so well in a March 5, 2024 game against St. John’s that he risked ruining the scheme. Jalen Smith, one of the alleged fixers, texted DePaul player Mac Etienne during the game that the unnamed player needed to “chilllll the fuck out.”
Etienne replied, again, during the game, that all would be well, that he and the other players involved in the scheme were keeping the ball away from the player so he couldn’t score. Smith texted back that they would get their “bag” if all went to plan. DePaul lost, 104-77, as a 19.5-point underdog.
