Professional sports leagues have long been concerned about betting scandals, but a surge of gambling occurrences involving athletes and officials began in May 2018. The decision allowed internet sportsbooks to establish a significant presence in the sports ecosystem by overturning a federal law that prohibited sports betting in the majority of states.
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Eight members of the Chicago White Sox were indicted by a Chicago grand jury in 1920 on charges of rigging the 1919 World Series. White Sox owner Charles Comiskey suspended the eight players, including Shoeless Joe Jackson, right away, and a year later, newly appointed baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis permanently banned them. The eight are still barred from baseball even though a jury found them not guilty of all charges.
The NHL Board of Governors warned that any more gambling would result in a player’s lifelong suspension after Hockey Hall of Famer Babe Pratt was suspended for gambling in 1946 and then reinstated a few weeks later.
Don Gallinger and Billy Taylor were banned from the NHL for life in 1948 for their involvement in hockey wagering.
At least 86 games between 1947 and 1951 were allegedly rigged by 35 current and past players in 1951. Four players from the Adolph Rupp-coached Kentucky Wildcats were among those charged for accepting bribes from gamblers prior to an NIT matchup with Loyola in the 1948–49 season. Following an NCAA inquiry that turned up multiple infractions, Kentucky’s 1952–53 season was canceled.
Due to their involvement in the Totonero match-fixing incident in 1980, two Italian soccer teams were demoted and five others faced penalties. The most notable punishment for Paolo Rossi’s involvement while playing for Perugia was a two-year ban.
Rick Kuhn, a former basketball player at Boston College, and four other people, including New York gangster Jimmy Burke, were found guilty in 1981 of plotting to rig games during the 1978–79 season.
In response to accusations of point-shaving and other offenses, Tulane halted its basketball program in 1985. Basketball was played at the school again for the 1989–1990 campaign.
Rose wagered heavily on the Cincinnati Reds to win from 1985 to 1987 while playing for and managing the team, according to a 1989 MLB investigation conducted by attorney John Dowd. The 82-year-old baseball great with 4,256 hits is still not eligible to be inducted into Cooperstown and has had multiple reinstatement requests turned down.
Thirteen Boston College football players, including two who placed wagers against BC during a 45–17 loss to Syracuse, were suspended for gambling in 1996. Coach Dan Henning resigned after alerting school authorities to claims that players were betting with bookies. There was no sign of point-shaving.
Rick Tocchet, the current coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, was put on two years of probation in 2007 after entering a guilty plea to conspiracy and gambling promotion while working as the Coyotes’ assistant coach. The NHL brought him back the following year. A number of players, including Wayne Gretzky’s wife Janet Jones and his former agent and then-Coyotes general manager Michael Barnett, were also first linked to a gambling operation in New Jersey called Operation Slapshot.
Referee Tim Donaghy of the NBA entered a guilty plea in 2008 to wire fraud and sending betting information after he received thousands of dollars from a gambler in exchange for insider information on games, including ones he covered. A federal judge sentenced him to 15 months in prison.
On the eve of the Rugby World Cup in 2019, Rob Howley, the former captain of the Wales men’s rugby team, was sent home to serve as an assistant coach. Howley had placed 363 wagers, one of which was on Wales’ victory over Ireland in the 2019 Six Nations Grand Slam final. He received an 18-month rugby suspension.
After giving pals exclusive information about his possible move and then placing bets on the result, England defender Kieran Trippier was banned for ten weeks in 2021.
The NFL has suspended at least fifteen players for gambling-related offenses. The list goes back to 1963, when Detroit defensive lineman Alex Karras and Green Bay halfback Paul Hornung—both of whom would go on to become Hall of Famers—were suspended for the season for placing wagers on league games. Calvin Ridley, a receiver with the Atlanta Falcons at the time, was suspended by the NFL for the full 2022 season for wagering on NFL games while he was away from the team dealing with mental health issues the year before.
into a soccer match-fixing scandal in May 2023. This is the third inquiry into allegations of misconduct by soccer players who reportedly handed away penalties and ensured bookings in return for bribes.
According to a 2023 book by gambler Billy Walters, the six-time major had wagered almost $1 billion over the previous thirty years. Additionally, according to Walters, Mickelson planned to wager $400,000 on the 2012 Ryder Cup, where he represented the United States. In a long social media statement, Mickelson said that he had given up gambling and admitted that his betting had gone beyond moderation to addiction. Mickelson denied making any Ryder Cup wagers.
In 2023, football players Sandro Tonali of Newcastle and Ivan Toney of Brentford were both banned for gambling. The Italian soccer federation banned Fagioli for seven months. was given a ten-month ban last year for placing bets on the teams he played for.
The Ottawa Senators forward received a 41-game suspension from the NHL in October 2023. The NHL would merely state that there was no proof of Pinto placing hockey wagers. When Pinto returned before the Senators in January, he refused to divulge any information.
The interpreter and close friend of recently acquired two-way sensation Shohei Ohtani was fired by the Los Angeles Dodgers in March 2024 after it was revealed that he had connections to an underground bookmaker. After stealing around $17 million from Ohtani’s bank account, Mizuhara entered a guilty plea to bank and tax fraud in federal court three months later. He used the funds to pay for his personal medical expenses, $325,000 worth of baseball cards, and his expanding gambling wagers and debts with an illicit bookmaker. Mizuhara took advantage of the language barrier to prevent Ohtani’s financial advisors from comprehending their client. In order to extend the scam, Mizuhara occasionally even pretended to be the player in front of the bank.
After a league investigation revealed that he had given sports bettors access to private information and placed wagers on games, including one on the Raptors to lose, he was given a life ban from the NBA in April 2024. Commissioner Adam Silver described Porter’s conduct as apparent when he made the announcement. The league began the investigation after receiving information regarding odd gambling trends related to Porter’s performance in a game against Sacramento on March 20 from authorized sports betting operators and a group that keeps an eye on legal betting markets. According to the league, Porter provided a bettor with information regarding his personal health state before the game, and another person who is known to be an NBA betting wagered $80,000 that Porter would fail to meet the parlay numbers that were set for him through an online sports book. $1.1 million would have been gained on the wager.
MLB banned him for life in June 2024 for baseball betting. According to MLB, Marcano used a legitimate sportsbook to put 387 baseball wagers in 2022 and 2023, totaling over $150,000. The 24-year-old Venezuelan, who has played in 149 major league games, was the first player to be permanently banned for gambling in a century. Pitcher Michael Kelly of the Oakland Athletics was also given a one-year suspension for baseball betting while playing in the minor leagues, and three minor league players—infielder Jos Rodriguez of Philadelphia, pitchers Jay Groome of San Diego, and Andrew Saalfrank of Arizona—were also given one-year bans for betting on major league games. All four of the players wagered less than $1,000. Both Saalfrank and Rodriguez have major league experience.
In February 2025, the umpire shared his legitimate sports betting accounts with a baseball-gambling acquaintance and purposefully erased electronic messages that were relevant to the league’s inquiry. On May 24, 2024, MLB senior vice president of on-field operations Michael Hill suggested that Hoberg be dismissed, despite MLB claiming the investigation found no evidence that Hoberg directly wagered on baseball or altered games. The ruling made by Commissioner Rob Manfred was upheld. Among the highest-rated umpires at judging the strike zone, Hoberg could apply for reinstatement no earlier than 2026 spring training. MLB said the friend made 141 baseball bets between April 2, 2021, and Nov. 1, 2023, totaling almost $214,000 with an overall win of nearly $35,000. That included eight bets involving games where Hoberg was working.
In June/July 2025, MLB placed Cleveland Guardians pitchers and on paid leave as part of a sports betting investigation. The Ortiz probe is related to in-game prop bets on two pitches thrown by the right-hander that received higher activity than usual during his starts at Seattle on June 15 and against St. Louis on June 27. The gambling activity on the pitches was flagged by a betting-integrity firm and forwarded to MLB. Clase was placed on leave more than three weeks after Ortiz. It’s not clear if Clase was sidelined as part of the same investigation, and he hasn’t been formally accused of wrongdoing.
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