Inside the Gambling Ring Allegedly Linked to Point Shaving Across Pro and College Basketball

[RandySF]

Last month, a little-known sports gambler who calls himself the “best that ever did it” attempted to board a flight from Las Vegas to Colombia, connecting through Panama, with a one-way ticket. Shane Hennen soon found himself in an upright and locked position. Federal agents who arrested him say he was carrying multiple cellphones, nearly $10,000 in cash and an alibi he offered “unprompted”: He was traveling to Colombia for dental treatment.

Authorities say Hennen helped orchestrate what appears to be one of the most pervasive point-shaving scandals in North American sports history.

The scandal, which appears to touch both pro and college basketball, has already generated a few headlines, but the sports world has not come to grips with just how widespread this scheme could be. In a court filing last month, the office of acting U.S. Attorney Carolyn Pokorny of the Eastern District of New York vouched for “substantial evidence” that Hennen was involved in “illicit financial transactions and fraudulent sports wagers totaling millions of dollars,” resulting “in potentially millions of dollars’ worth of illicit profits and money-laundering transactions.”

The links from Hennen to game fixing begin with former Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter. Porter admitted to taking himself out of games in 2024 so gamblers could win prop bets on his performances. He pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy to commit wire fraud in July 2024 and is awaiting sentencing; the NBA banned him for life. Terry Rozier, a far more prominent NBA player currently with the Miami Heat, is under federal investigation for his performance in a 2023 game while a member of the Charlotte Hornets—his case is tied to Porter’s, three independent sources familiar with the probes tell Sports Illustrated. The NBA said it investigated Rozier and did not find any violations, and the league is cooperating with the Eastern District. Rozier has not been charged with a crime.





https://www.si.com/college-basketball/inside-the-gambling-ring-allegedly-linked-to-point-shaving-in-pro-and-college-basketball

[Mike 03]

1. Afraid to see where this is leading

Hope no really big names (beloved athletes) are involved. At the professional level (and college too) you'd think the aspiration for excellence and the ego required to get them where they are would keep them a million miles away from the creepy cheaters.

Sigh.

[ProfessorGAC]

2. I Think It's Unlikely

The big names make such enormous money, on & off the court, that their share of such a scheme would be pocket change.
Even with NIL, that's not true of college athletes. Such a scheme could get them 3 or 4 times what an NIL deal is getting them.
I'd think those guys playing for the veteran minimum are susceptible.
That's why I don't believe the Rosier thing. Guy makes $25 million per season.
Even if he netted $5 million from gamblers, he's risking 3 years of $25 million. And, $5 million seems too high, because tens of millions of prop bets on a reserve would raise red flags in the entire gaming industry, even the underground part.
The biggest gambling scandals in sports history involved players being exploited by a skinflint owner or amateurs who were making nothing while generate truckloads of cash for others.