Senay Boztas, Unherd

Antwerp harbour leads up the River Scheldt and into the heart of Europe, a port the size of 16,600 football fields, sucking in 240,000,000 tonnes of freight each year. From the giant aerial photograph spread out on the floor of the Port Authority Building, you can see the open sprawl of its spreading fingers and multiple roads. But it’s not just bananas, steel and new cars that are unloaded here. Antwerp is now Europe’s main artery for cocaine smugglers, and the attendant violence they bring with them.

The increase in violent crime is, according to the Antwerp Federal Police, impossible to ignore. Last year, they confiscated €20.7 million in cash and goods and started 94 investigations into drug-related violence. Intercepted cocaine in Rotterdam harbour, in the Netherlands, dropped from almost 73,000 kgs in the record year of 2021 to under 47,000. Meanwhile finds in Antwerp have increased to a peak of almost 110,000 kgs. Antwerp is now, say customs officers, “the top destination for criminals”, and established Dutch drug gangs are spilling over the Belgian border. Last autumn, four Dutch suspects were arrested for allegedly preparing a kidnapping attempt on the Belgian justice minister Vincent van Quickenborne, who went into hiding following a summer of grenade attacks linked to Dutch and Belgian criminal gangs. In Antwerp this January, 11-year-old Firdaous EJ, the niece of an alleged Belgian druglord, was shot dead in a drive-by attack on her home.

 

“It’s a narco-state lite,” says Teun Voeten, a photographer and the author of several books on the drug trade, who lives in Antwerp. He was first made aware of the problem of drug violence by the sound of hand grenades on his street in Deurne in 2018, an attack which damaged 16 cars and 10 houses. “The Amsterdammers were always the big bosses, but with the cracking of EncroChat and Sky ECC, some gang leaders have been arrested. Now the Antwerp families are going for themselves, and every change is marked with violence.” It is something Antwerp mayor Bart de Wever has warned about repeatedly: vergismoorden, collateral murders of civilians, which are rife in the Dutch criminal world. Now he says it is a “national crisis”. Last month, Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo announced €17 million a year for a new harbour police force, more scanners, screening for 16,000 personnel in “sensitive” positions, and international efforts, including a deal with five shipping companies and the Dutch.

“Belgium has a problem because of its proximity to the Netherlands,” says Andrew Cunningham, drugs market and crime lead at the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA). “Rotterdam was seizing big hauls of cocaine a few years ago, the Dutch really improved port security, then there’s this waterbed effect: the criminals move to Antwerp to bring in the cocaine. Antwerp is a huge, sprawling port and it’s very difficult to control.” Around five years ago, police and prosecutors feared crime was leaching from the Dutch underworld into Belgium. But when academics including Charlotte Colman, professor of criminology at the University of Ghent, investigated the matter, they didn’t find a displacement, but an expansion of both the drug market and the Belgian and Dutch criminal networks.

Rest is here…

Frank Jordans, Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — German police said Monday they have disrupted a ransomware cybercrime gang tied to Russia that has been blackmailing large companies and institutions for years, raking in millions of euros.

Working with law enforcement partners including Europol, the FBI and authorities in Ukraine, police in Duesseldorf said they were able to identify 11 individuals linked to a group that has operated in various guises since at least 2010.

The gang allegedly behind the ransomware, known as DoppelPaymer, appears tied to Evil Corp, a Russia-based syndicate engaged in online bank theft well before ransomware became a global scourge.

Among its most prominent victims were Britain’s National Health Service and Duesseldorf University Hospital, whose computers were infected with DoppelPaymer in 2020. A woman who needed urgent treatment died after she had to be taken to another city for treatment.

Ransomware is the world’s most disruptive cybercrime. Gangs mostly based in Russia break into networks and steal sensitive information before activating malware that scrambles data. The criminals demand payment in exchange for decryption keys and a promise not to dump the stolen data online.

 

In a 2020 alert, the FBI said DoppelPaymer had been used since late 2019 to target critical industries worldwide including healthcare, emergency services and education, with six- and seven-figure ransoms routinely demanded.

An analyst with the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, Brett Callow, said DoppelPaymer has published data stolen from about 200 companies, including in the U.S. defense sector, which resisted payment. And given DoppelPaymer’s suspected connection through Evil Corp to the FSB — the successor to Russia’s KGB spy agency — “the bust could provide law enforcement with some exceptionally valuable intel,” he said.

Dirk Kunze, who heads the cybercrime department with North Rhine-Westphalia state police, said at least 601 victims have been identified worldwide, including 37 in Germany. Europol said victims in the United States paid out at least 40 million euros ($42.5 million) to the gang between May 2019 and March 2021 to release important data that was electronically locked using the malware.

Rest is here…

Eben Nobvy-Williams, Sportico

DraftKings will continue to scale back on its partnerships with sports teams and leagues, CEO Jason Robins said Friday, calling it an inefficient part of the company’s business.

The comment is particularly notable coming from Robins, whose company is taking a more aggressive approach to customer acquisition than many of its competitors. Sportsbooks including Caesars and BetMGM scaled back their marketing and promotion costs last year in reaction to investors expressing fears about heavy losses; Robins said DraftKings’ costs in that area this year will likely be similar to the $1.2 billion spent in 2022.

More from Sportico.com

• DraftKings Shares Jump in Late Trading After Revenue, Earnings Beat

• WBD-Owned RSNs Fail to Meet Rights-Fee Obligations to MLB Partners

• DOJ Pitch in Minor League Case Brushes Back Antitrust Exemption

That spending, however, will not continue at the same rate with leagues and teams, a shift that could have large financial ramifications across U.S. pro sports. Robins said during an analyst call that “a number of partners” had already agreed to reduce fees as part of their deals and that DraftKings had already ended its relationship with some others. He added that the company would likely not renew a handful of addition deals.

“It’s really part of an overall effort that we have to be more efficient as a company,” Robins said on the call. “And I think that there is an opportunity in this category to get even better.”

DraftKings is an official sports betting partner of the NFL, NHL, NBA, PGA Tour and UFC. Robins did not name any specific partners, and a company spokesman declined to say which had agreed to lower fees. The boilerplate in recent DraftKings press releases state that it is an “authorized gaming operator” of MLB, though earlier releases indicate it was once at the higher ‘official sports betting partner’ level. (An MLB representative didn’t immediately respond to a question about whether the relationship had changed.)

Rest is here…

David Purdum, ESPN

A new twist on an old bet has taken sports betting in the United States by storm.

Same-game parlays, or SGPs, have emerged as not only one of the most popular bets on the board for bettors but also one of the most profitable for bookmakers.

In last year’s Super Bowl, 31% of bets placed before the game kicked off were same-game parlays at BetRivers, Barstool and other U.S. sportsbooks powered by Kambi, an international sports betting platform provider. At sportsbook PointsBet, 22% of all bets placed on the Super Bowl were SGPs. Both companies were anticipating even more Super Bowl SGPs this year. Not bad for something that sportsbooks in the U.S. only began accepting a few years ago.

Parlays have been a staple of American sports betting for more than 100 years. They combine multiple bets into one. A three-leg parlay, for example, features three picks. To win the maximum payout, each of the legs on your parlay must be successful. When the book builds in its margin, the max payout turns out to be less than your actual chances of hitting each of your picks on your parlay.

Historically, parlays were required to include bets from multiple games. Las Vegas sportsbooks refused to accept parlays that included events from one game for decades. You weren’t allowed, for example, to build a parlay on the favorite to cover a big point spread and the score to go over the total from the same game, because of the correlation of both outcomes. Old-school bookmakers, hindered by technology of the times, were afraid that the margins built into their parlay payout odds were not wide enough to account for any correlation.

“Not only did we not have the technology to automatically adjust prices, we also didn’t have the know-how,” said Art Manteris, who ran the sportsbooks at Caesars Palace and the Las Vegas Hilton, among others, during a 40-year bookmaking career in Nevada. “Today’s systems have the ability to analyze the data in real time automatically. Old-school bookmakers just couldn’t do that. If you have the math and the ability to adjust, like they have today, it can be very lucrative.”

How lucrative? In 2022, New Jersey sportsbooks won $450.4 million off $2.4 billion in parlay bets, 61% more than the total amount won on straight bets, according to revenue numbers from the state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement.

Rest is here…

Dan Froomkin, Presswatchers

Morton Mintz is turning 100 today, a good excuse to briefly review his extraordinary career as a pioneering hero of investigative reporting in medicine and public health.

As a reporter at the Washington Post for 30 years – from 1958 to 1988 – Mintz relentlessly exposed corporate crime and misconduct, particularly in the drug, tobacco and automotive industries.

In 1962, Mintz broke the story of the consequences of using thalidomide, the sedative/tranquilizer that caused thousands of babies to be born armless, legless or limbless to women who had taken the drug during the first trimester of pregnancy.

As he wrote in a 2013 essay, “The story dealt a lasting blow to the then widely-held notion that science and technology always or nearly always produce benign results.”

His continued to report on unsafe medicines and medical devices, most notably the Dalkon Shield, an intrauterine birth control device that seriously injured tens of thousands of women.

In his book, “AT ANY COST; Corporate Greed, Women and The Dalkon Shield” Mintz wrote that he saw the Dalkon Shield story as proof of “the chasm between the flesh-and-blood person and the paper corporate person.”

He famously concluded: “The human being who would not harm you on an individual, face-to-face basis, who is charitable, civic-minded, loving, and devout, will wound or kill you from behind the corporate veil.”

Rest is here…

Marc Raimondi, ESPN 

UFC flyweight Jeff Molina is suspected of having “substantial involvement” in a betting scheme currently being probed by multiple government entities, Nevada deputy attorney general Joel Bekker said Tuesday at the Nevada State Athletic Commission meeting.

The NSAC temporarily suspended Molina last month, as first reported by ESPN, though the commission did not give a reason at the time. That suspension was extended Tuesday, pending the completion of investigations.

Bekker said evidence has come to light that Molina is suspected of being “involved in a substantial way” with the “gaming scheme currently under ongoing investigation related to [MMA coach] James Krause.”

Krause, who is Molina’s coach, and fighter Darrick Minner have also both been temporarily suspended by the NSAC.

The UFC said in a statement that it will not schedule Molina for any fights “whether in Nevada or elsewhere, pending the outcome of the commission’s investigation.”

“UFC’s Athlete Code of Conduct strictly prohibits fighters and members of their teams from wagering on UFC events, and UFC will take all necessary action to enforce that policy. UFC remains committed to cooperating with the appropriate authorities while this matter is being investigated,” the statement said.

Minner’s Nov. 5 UFC fight against Shayilan Nuerdanbieke in Las Vegas has been flagged for suspicious betting activity. New Jersey and New York sportsbooks, as well as offshore bookmakers, reported unusual betting interest on Minner to lose in the first round and for the fight to last fewer than 2½ rounds. He lost by TKO just over a minute into the first round.

In the month after the fight, gambling enforcement authorities in New Jersey halted wagering on any events associated with Krause, and two Canadian jurisdictions temporarily suspended betting on the UFC. Alberta has since overturned the ban. Multiple sources have told ESPN that the FBI has been collecting information and interviewing people about the fight.

Rest is here…

David Purdum, ESPN

A suspended MMA coach at the center of an ongoing betting scandal in the UFC has acted as an agent for an offshore bookmaking operation for years, multiple sources who placed bets with him told ESPN.

James Krause, 36, has worked as an agent — the term for a middleman between offshore sportsbooks and bettors — for ABCBetting.ag, according to people who wagered with him as far back as 2019. The .ag domain is for sites in Antigua and Barbuda.

Krause also has publicly acknowledged being part of an online betting group that employed sophisticated tactics, including taking over other bettors’ sportsbook accounts to circumvent betting limits.

Multiple government agencies are investigating a Nov. 5 UFC fight in Las Vegas between Darrick Minner, who was coached by Krause, and Shayilan Nuerdanbieke after it was flagged for suspicious betting activity. New Jersey and New York sportsbooks, as well as offshore bookmakers, reported unusual betting interest on Minner to lose in the first round and for the fight to last fewer than 2.5 rounds. He lost by TKO just over a minute into the first round.

In the month after the fight, gambling enforcement authorities in New Jersey halted wagering on any events associated with Krause, and two Canadian jurisdictions temporarily suspended betting on the UFC. Multiple sources have told ESPN that the FBI has been collecting information and interviewing people about the fight.

Krause and Minner were suspended indefinitely by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for failing to disclose an injury on his prefight medical questionnaire. Jeff Molina, another fighter in Krause’s gym, was also suspended. The UFC released Minner and notified fighters who continued to train with Krause or at his gym, Glory MMA & Fitness, that they would be banned from events pending government investigations.

Until his suspension, Krause was considered a top up-and-coming coach in the sport, guiding the careers of several UFC title contenders, including UFC interim flyweight champion Brandon Moreno.

The UFC did not prohibit fighters or their teams from gambling on bouts, including those they were involved in, until October, and interviews with fighters and managers throughout the sport have indicated that betting has been widespread. Twenty-four states and Washington, D.C., have rules against athletes, coaches or related figures betting, but most of those put the burden of complying on sportsbook operators. Only four — Colorado, Michigan, Virginia and West Virginia — have penalties for the person betting, according to data compiled by Legal Sports Report, which tracks sports betting legislation.

Krause has not spoken publicly about the Minner defeat, and he did not respond to ESPN’s requests for comment.

Minner told ESPN last week that he has not been contacted by the FBI. Asked whether anything improper happened before the Nov. 5 fight, Minner said, “Absolutely not. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

Rest is here…

David Purdum, ESPN

That’s a wrap — 2022 is in the books, which, coincidentally, is where a lot of the betting public’s money now resides.

Bettors were down more than $6 billion through November, and that’s just in the 30-some states with legal bookmakers. Don’t forget that people are still betting — and losing — in states that haven’t legalized wagering yet, including California and Texas. Add it all up, and it feels safe to say American bettors left more than $10 billion of their funds with their friendly bookmakers in 2022. Better luck next year!

There were some winners, of course, big ones, in fact. None bigger than a venerable furniture salesman from Houston known as Mattress Mack, who practically single-handedly sent Louisiana’s sportsbook industry to a losing month in November.

Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, owner of Gallery Furniture in Houston, won approximately $75 million off $10 million in bets on the Astros to win the World Series. It’s believed to be the largest payout in American sports betting history, with the bulk of the haul coming from Louisiana sportsbooks.

McIngvale regularly uses the betting market to mitigate risk from furniture giveaways at his store. In June, he launched a promotion that offered any customer who spends $3,000 or more at his store double their money back if the Astros won the World Series. By July, he cut the offer to a straight-up refund instead of double but continued the promotion into the American League Championship Series.

“We figured we had enough betting insurance to go through Game 1 or 2 of the World Series,” McIngvale told ESPN in a recent phone interview. “But on the Sunday after they beat the Yankees and clinched, we had the biggest day [in sales] ever, by about 20%, so we had to cut the promotion off then.

“We’ve been fast and furious giving people this money back the last couple months. Thank God, I had enough guts or stupidity to get those bets at 10-1 way back in June.”

McIngvale said one customer received a $25,000 refund and said she was going to use it to pay some of her child’s college tuition. Customers have to come in to Gallery Furniture to fill out tax forms and either receive a check or have the money put on their credit cards.

“It’s a big undertaking for us, especially as many people were in this promotion,” McIngvale said. “But it certainly made a lot of people happy.”

McIngvale didn’t waste any time getting back in the gambling game. He has more than $1 million riding on the Houston Cougars to win the NCAA men’s basketball tournament at around 10-1 odds. In the meantime, he’s planning his next promotion, eyeing a big bet on the Super Bowl — he likes the Vikings, Cowboys and Bengals — and setting his goals for 2023. His New Year’s resolution is to, “Gamble more and gamble smarter,” he said with a laugh.

Rest is here…

David Purdum, ESPN

New Jersey gaming regulators on Friday ordered sportsbooks to halt betting on the Citrus Bowl between Purdue and LSU because “an individual associated with the Purdue Football team” is in violation of state regulations.

Sources familiar with the decision told ESPN that retired NFL quarterback Drew Brees, who signed on to become an interim assistant coach for Purdue in the bowl game, is the individual in question because of his business relationship with sportsbook PointsBet.

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement instructed the state’s sportsbooks to stop taking bets involving Purdue football and said existing wagers on the Citrus Bowl that were placed after Dec. 15 must be voided, according to the notice that was sent Friday morning and obtained by ESPN. Brees, a Purdue alum, signed on to be an interim coach on Dec. 15.

In the notice, the gaming division did not name the individual associated with Purdue but stated they were in violation statute 5:12A-11 (f), which prohibits athletes, coaches, referees or directors of a sports governing body from having “any ownership interest in, control of, or otherwise be employed by an operator.”

Rest is here…

David Purdum, ESPN

The Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) has suspended UFC fighter Jeff Molina, according to Molina’s page on official MMA online recordkeeper mixedmartialarts.com.

The reason for the suspension is not listed. A source with access to the Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports (ABC) internal database told ESPN that Molina’s suspension is marked as “uncategorized,” pending the NSAC’s next meeting. That meeting is scheduled for January.

Molina, a 25-year-old flyweight prospect, recently withdrew from a scheduled fight with Jimmy Flick at UFC Fight Night on Jan. 14 in Las Vegas, which is the UFC’s next event. He was replaced by Charles Johnson.

Molina, who trained for years under MMA coach James Krause, withdrew from the bout on Dec. 3, one day after the UFC announced that fighters training under Krause would be banned from UFC events if they did not disassociate from him.

Krause and one of his fighters, Darrick Minner, are currently suspended by the NSAC as part of a suspicious betting investigation into Minner’s Nov. 5 UFC fight in Las Vegas against Shayilan Nuerdanbieke.

Multiple sources told ESPN that Molina is also linked to the investigation, which, according to the UFC, involves multiple government entities. The FBI is collecting information and has spoken to people regarding the Minner vs. Nuerdanbieke fight, according to multiple sources.

NSAC executive director Jeff Mullen said he could not comment on whether Molina was suspended “until the meeting support material is released.”

Molina did not respond to a request for comment from ESPN on Friday. The UFC released Minner on Dec. 2. At the NSAC meeting on Dec. 14, the commission extended the suspensions of Krause and Minner, pending further investigation.

Rest is here…