2023 college baseball/softball thread

Dan, the agency cannot, but the state gaming commission can and would at the agency's request.

 

Matthew Holt is the founder of U.S. Integrity, and he used to appear regularly on RJ Bell's gambling podcast. By all appearances, he seemed like a smart, sincere guy. I liked him.

I asked the question first, and I still don't understand how this got flagged so quickly.

 

Is this implying the possibility of an on-campus Dollar General? Because that would be the most Starkville thing ever.

 

I'm guessing the people at the SEC -- or any other conference -- never guessed baseball would be the first sport to feature a gambling scandal in the widely legalized era.

 

Ole Miss' Calvin Harris tied an SEC record (previously done by Florida's JJ Schwarz in 2015 and Kentucky's Bill Sandry in 1982) with four home runs against Missouri.
He had 10 RBIs, which tied a school record set by Charley Conerly in 1947.

 

I’ll vouch for Matty. He’s good stuff and this is his corner — being the watchdog for the books. The rise of US Integrity means that he couldn’t do media as often.

Even as a player who tried to beat the books, I also just want a fair game and for these to get flagged if there is any funny business.

 

For college sports, it was bound to be baseball or women’s basketball… perhaps men’s hockey, depending on the book. Sports that don’t have the handle of football or men’s basketball.

Any action of more than $500 on baseball, hockey or women’s hoops will have multiple sets of eyes on it before the sports books accepts the action.

 

Plus even coaches in dead end jobs like Vandy football or Georgia hoops are still making millions per year. They aren’t throwing it away for some dumb shit like this.

 

You've done more deep dives into the gambling depths than I have or ever will. Did you ever see college baseball offered by the books before this season? We got sports betting in Mississippi in 2018 and this is the first time I can remember seeing it on a game-by-game basis.

 

it wasn’t legal in my previous state until after the 2019 CWS. I remember seeing CWS and super-regional baseball lines in 2021. That whole time - April/May/June 2021 - I was at my apex of making money… about $160 day/average profit. All MLB and some soccer. I didn’t touch college baseball as I didn’t remember any odds boosts or free bets on college baseball. I remember draft kings and FanDuel with odds. BetRivers had some of the super regionals.

I did bet some college hockey that winter but I may or may not have had some inside info on a play here or there. Caesars used to have a lot of college hockey lines.

Now, as long as the odds services can find a freelancer to cover one of these sports and put the real-time info on the game in, they’ll usually post a number.

 

Unless the school had the ability to track phone calls from the coach’s phone or the bettor gave up his phone voluntarily, agree that it doesn’t make sense how they knew about the calls immediately.

 

US Integrity gets wind of it. Contacts SEC right away. They reach out to Alabama. Compliance/AD office looks through cell phone records (if this really was the case). It could happen pretty quick if Alabama is on the ball.

If sports book surveillance is anything like casino surveillance, they can get info quick. I got hustled into the surveillance room - 30 years ago - when I was a dealer about a card counter I was dealing to and it was incredible how much detail they had in 1993 video equipment.