<![CDATA[Sports and Crime Briefing: Betting]]>https://www.sportsandcrime.com/s/bettinghttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NI07!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F77e0b3ed-5e80-4656-afc5-33b53702861a_1024x1024.pngSports and Crime Briefing: Bettinghttps://www.sportsandcrime.com/s/bettingSubstackWed, 08 Apr 2026 14:08:02 GMT<![CDATA[A Fixer's Paradise: Why the US is Rolling Out Red Carpet for Prediction Markets]]>https://www.sportsandcrime.com/p/a-fixers-paradise-why-the-us-is-rollinghttps://www.sportsandcrime.com/p/a-fixers-paradise-why-the-us-is-rollingFri, 30 Jan 2026 10:58:56 GMTOn January 15, federal prosecutors in Philadelphia unsealed a landmark indictment: 26 people charged in an international point-shaving ring that bribed 39 college basketball players across 17 schools to fix or attempt 29 games from 2022 to 2025.

The fixers were former NBA players like Jalen Smith and Antonio Blakeney. They targeted mid-tier colleges like DePaul, Kennesaw State, Tulane, offering players cash bribes of $10,000-40,000, easily dwarfing the earnings these players would get from NIL (name, image and likeness).

The indictment came just 24 hours after Charlie Baker, the president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), wrote a damning letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the government agency regulating the US derivatives market.

Baker demanded that the CFTC issue a full suspension of collegiate prediction markets. This is due to platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket treating matching outcomes as tradable commodities. These exchanges allow users to buy "yes/no" contracts on events like point spreads, with prices fluctuating widely based on market probability.

Why does the NCAA want to ban prediction markets?

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]]><![CDATA[How Gambling Impacts Crime Differently in the US and Around the World]]>https://www.sportsandcrime.com/p/how-gambling-impacts-crime-differentlyhttps://www.sportsandcrime.com/p/how-gambling-impacts-crime-differentlyMon, 29 Dec 2025 16:37:11 GMTResearchers at the University of Michigan and Rice University published findings that violent crime spiked by up to 93 per cent on game days in U.S. states that legalised sports betting. But does their pattern hold when extended worldwide?

Their study, analysing FBI crime data from 2017 to 2021, isolated a narrow window. They found that reports of assaults, larceny, and vehicle theft surged from kickoff through four hours after a game in the 38 states that adopted betting after a landmark 2018 Supreme Court decision.

World of Crime found that the US pattern is not isolated. Similar crime increases tied to gambling legalization have been documented in Australia, Japan, Sweden, and Canada, among others.

Chris Long, two-time Super Bowl champion, shares hilarious solution for fan brawls at NFL stadiums - CBS Sports
A brawl at a game between the Denver Broncos and the Dallas Cowboys. Source: Getty

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]]><![CDATA[The Guide to All Ongoing US Sports Betting Scandals - NBA, MLB, UFC, NCAA and more]]>https://www.sportsandcrime.com/p/a-roundup-of-all-ongoing-us-sportshttps://www.sportsandcrime.com/p/a-roundup-of-all-ongoing-us-sportsMon, 10 Nov 2025 10:46:36 GMTAnother week, another massive sports betting scandal in American sports. It’s getting hard to keep up.

This time, Major League Baseball pitchers, Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase of the Cleveland Guardians, have been indicted for allegedly scheming to rig games for bettors.

This is the four major scandal to break in a month, after evolving crises in the NBA, UFC, and college basketball. This machine-gun succession of cases shows how sports integrity is breaking down across American sports.

But the rot goes deeper than these three crises. Now, the Sports and Crime Briefing will outline all the current and recent match-fixing and betting scandals shaking the sports world, examining how we reached this crisis point.

  1. Major League Baseball (MLB)

  2. National Basketball Association (NBA)

  3. Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

  4. National Football League (NFL)

  5. College Sports (NCAA)

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]]><![CDATA[Floorball Scandal Continues to Expose Finland's Woeful Betting Track Record]]>https://www.sportsandcrime.com/p/floorball-scandal-continues-to-exposehttps://www.sportsandcrime.com/p/floorball-scandal-continues-to-exposeThu, 18 Sep 2025 09:19:47 GMTSo I have a weird compulsion to learn about niche sports around the world. One of my favourite regional crazes is the popularity of floorball (or salibandy) in Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic, and others.

For much of the world, a version of hockey played in school gyms. For Scandinavia and Central Europe, a furore with thriving leagues, baying fans, and a Champions Cup.

However, all is not well in the world of floorball.

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