Zack Ewing, NOLA
The chairman of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board said the state received an alert of suspicious betting activity regarding the Alabama-LSU baseball game on Friday night but that he had no reason to believe LSU was involved or that there was reason for any limitation of college baseball betting in Louisiana.
Ronnie Johns said he and his board were monitoring the situation after the state of Ohio banned sportsbooks from taking bets on Alabama baseball after suspicious activity was detected Friday night.
“There were a couple of bets made in Cincinnati, Ohio,” Johns said. “One was on a parlay which involved the LSU-Alabama game, and then there was another straight-up (money line) bet. I was told it was a large bet that involved LSU-Alabama.”
ESPN reported the suspicious activity took place at the BetMGM sportsbook located at Great American Ball Park, the Cincinnati Reds’ home field. Notably, Johns said both bets were on LSU to win the game.
“That in itself indicates that there’s definitely no suspicious activity on the part of LSU,” he said. “You don’t typically suspect the team that was picked to win the game. The problem would have been whether someone on the Alabama side was suspicious of activity.”
LSU took an 8-1 lead during the contest Friday at Alex Box Stadium and held on for an 8-6 victory after Alabama rallied for four runs in the ninth inning. The Tigers were -245 favorites on the money line, meaning bettors had to wager $245 to earn $100 in profit.
The gambling integrity firm U.S. Integrity notified its clients of the alert of the unusual activity on the game, but thus far Ohio is the only state to take any action. ESPN reported that FanDuel Sportsbook also took down Alabama baseball games from its odds board in all jurisdictions as a precaution.
Johns said the state’s Gaming Division, which works under the Louisiana State Police and is a separate entity from the Gaming Control Board, is continuing to investigate the incident.
“To my knowledge, this is the first alert we have gotten on activity like that,” said Johns, who has been the Gaming Control Board’s chairman since before sports betting was made legal in Louisiana in 2021. “We’ve seen some alerts on minor stuff, but our radar goes up if it involves a state school in Louisiana like LSU.
“But there is absolutely no suspicious activity regarding LSU at this point.”
Rest is here…
