Top 10 sports gambling scandals as spotlight shines on Shohei Ohtani

This salacious scandal involved players from City College of New York and other teams who were implicated in a point shaving scheme orchestrated by gamblers. This sports gambling scandal was particularly shocking as CCNY had clinched both the NCAA and NIT championships that season. Multiple players were arressted leading to changes in college basketball to uphold the sports’ integrity.

In a case from Germany in 2004, referee Robert Hoyzer confessed to fixing matches as part of a gambling syndicate linked to Croatian betting rings. Hoyzer’s involvement in this sports gambling scandal included manipulating German Cup games along with division soccer matches. Hoyzer received a sentence of two years and five months, in prison which resulted in reforms in the supervision of referees in football.

A sports gambling scandal rocked the University of Toledo in 2005 when members of the university’s football and basketball teams were bribed by gamblers to influence game results. Investigations revealed that players deliberately missed shots and committed fouls to change scores leading to convictions for conspiracy and bribery.

The Boston College basketball sports gambling scandal in the late 1970s was another infamous sports gambling saga. Players from the team collaborated with mobsters from a local crime family, including the infamous Henry Hill, made famous in the movie Goodfellas, to shave points and manipulate game results for betting purposes. The scheme was uncovered during investigations into organized crime activities resulting in the conviction of eight Eagles players and several fixers and illegal bookmakers.

In 2006, Italian professional soccer faced a massive scandal involving game fixing and illegal betting which led to the arrest of team Juventus’ general manager Luciano Moggi and others. Juventus had to relegate itself to a lower teir Serie B and was stripped of their 2005 and 2006 Serie A titles. The team finally worked its way back to Serie A but the scandal is still the biggest in Italian sports history.

This sports gambling scandal centered on a manipulated match between Manchester United and Liverpool ensuring Manchester United’s victory to evade relegation. Players from both teams were complicit in this scheme which was exposed after substantial bets were placed on the predetermined outcome of the game. Seven players involved in the scheme were banned from the Premier League for life.

During the 1960-61 NCAA men’s basketball season, a widespread sports gambling scandal emerged, leading to the arrest of 37 students from 22 colleges. The scheme was linked to Jack Molinas, a figure previously implicated in the 1951 CCNY point shaving scandal, alongside bookmaker Joe Hacken and Vincent Gigante, a Genovese crime family enforcer. Prominent players such as Doug Moe from UNC, Tony Jackson of St. John’s University, Roger Brown from the University of Dayton, and students from NYU, North Carolina State, and the University of Connecticut were embroiled in the controversy. While Hall of Famer Connie Hawkins, then at Iowa, was expelled despite not playing varsity games and thus unable to influence outcomes, his subsequent ban from the NCAA and professional basketball was lifted only after a successful lawsuit in 1969. The scandal also affected institutions like Saint Joseph’s University, which was stripped of its 1961 NCAA tournament third-place finish, and influenced individuals such as Paul Tagliabue, who played in a manipulated game, shaping his future strong anti-gambling stance as the NFL commissioner.

The NBA sports betting scandal of 2007 revolved around Tim Donaghy, an NBA referee. He came under FBI scrutiny for betting on games he officiated during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons manipulating calls to influence the point spread for his gain. Donaghy eventually admitted guilt to two charges in 2007, receiving a 15-month prison sentence. This incident prompted the NBA to reassess its monitoring protocols and increased scrutiny on the league’s officials.

Pete Rose, known as baseball’s all-time hits leader and former manager of the Cincinnati Reds, faced allegations of betting on baseball games including those featuring his team. Following an investigation in 1989, Rose accepted a suspension from baseball. While he initially refuted claims of betting on baseball games, and later confessed to it in his autobiography, the suspension was turned into a lifetime ban from anything to do with MLB. This ban has prevented him from being included in the Baseball Hall of Fame despite his achievements on field. It’s one of the most costly sports gambling scandals of all time and is polarizing for baseball fans who believe Rose should still be eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Among the earliest and most scandalous sports gambling scandals in sports history was the involvement of eight Chicago White Sox players who were accused of collaborating with gamblers to manipulate the outcome of the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. Even though they were cleared of charges in a trial in 1921, all eight players, including the “Shoeless” Joe Jackson received a lifetime ban from baseball. Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis showed no mercy as the scandal not only ruined the players careers, but it cast a shadow overall all of baseball. The scandal was retold in the classic 1988 movie Eight Men Out.