Tisha Thompson, ESPN

The illegal bookmaker at the center of the sports betting scandal focused on Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter of Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani, will plead guilty next week to bookmaking and money laundering charges, according to court records unsealed by federal prosecutors Thursday.

Prosecutors charged Mathew Bowyer, 49, with operating an unlawful gambling business, money laundering and filing a false tax return on June 21, according to a plea agreement and charging documents filed in U.S. District Court for Central District of California.

“Mr. Bowyer is looking forward to accepting responsibility for his actions,” Diane Bass, Bowyer’s attorney, said in a statement Thursday to ESPN.

Bowyer will plead guilty on Aug. 9, according to a news release from prosecutors. A spokesman declined to offer any additional comment.

Until now, Bowyer’s legal proceedings were sealed as prosecutors continue their wide-ranging federal probe of Southern California bookmakers and their connections to Las Vegas casinos.

The records released Thursday confirm for the first time that Bowyer has been the subject of a federal investigation. ESPN first reported that Bowyer was under investigation in March.

As part of his plea deal, Bowyer admitted to receiving more than $4 million in unreported income in 2022, and to falsely reporting that his taxable income was $607,897. Bowyer knew his income was “substantially higher than that amount” because he ran a sportsbook that “involved at least five persons” and had a “gross revenue of more than $2,000 in a single day.” Prosecutors noted Bowyer also violated California state law prohibiting bookmaking.

Because more than five people were involved, Bowyer could face a more severe punishment. He faces a maximum sentence of 18 years in prison, but by pleading guilty, he will most likely receive less.

Judge John W. Holcomb will make the final determination, according to court documents. Holcomb is the same judge scheduled to deliver Mizuhara’s sentence on Oct. 25.

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David Purdum, ESPN

Bert Neff, an Indiana businessman who federal authorities described as a professional gambler, was sentenced to eight months in prison and three years of supervised release Monday for his role in a betting scandal involving an SEC baseball game in 2023, according to a spokesperson for the United States Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Alabama

Neff pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice charges in March after federal authorities accused him of destroying evidence, tampering with witnesses and providing false statements to the FBI during an investigation into suspicious betting on an Alabama-LSU baseball game on April 28, 2023.

The investigation ultimately led to the firing of then-Crimson Tide baseball coach Brad Bohannon. Multiple sources told ESPN that Neff, after communicating with Bohannon about a lineup change, attempted to bet on LSU to win the game in question. Bohannon, who has not been named in court documents, was terminated by Alabama in early May 2023.

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Paula Lavigne and Adam Rittenberg, ESPN

THE COMPUTER SCREEN showed hundreds of dots on a map, each one indicating a sports betting app in use. One cluster of dots caught the investigator’s eye. He zoomed in and saw it was the athletic facilities at the University of Iowa.

The cluster was “one of those where once you see it, you can’t unsee it,” a source with knowledge of the map told ESPN.

The legal betting age in Iowa is 21, NCAA athletes and athletic staff aren’t allowed to gamble on NCAA-sanctioned sports, and only athletes and athletic staff had access to the facility. A high volume of activity there could be “indicative of some form of potential fraud, ID theft or something,” the source said.

In May 2023, Iowa law enforcement and prosecutors, noting data showing that sportsbooks rarely flag their own bettors, acted on what Brian Sanger, an agent of the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigations, saw on that screen. The result was the nation’s first major crackdown on college athletes and gambling since a 2018 Supreme Court decision paved the way for legalized sports betting. At least 35 athletes and team support staff from Iowa and Iowa State — including football, baseball and basketball players, as well as wrestlers, notably several from Iowa’s highly ranked team — were charged criminally and/or lost all or part of their NCAA eligibility based on the information last year.

Prosecutors secured guilty pleas in all of their misdemeanor cases, but the four cases involving felony charges were dismissed when the accused questioned whether Sanger legally used betting surveillance technology. (Another case was dismissed due to a technicality.) More than two dozen athletes then filed a federal lawsuit alleging law enforcement had violated their constitutional rights by using geofencing software “illegally, and without a warrant” to identify athletes who were betting on DraftKings and FanDuel.

Sanger declined ESPN’s request for comment.

As the legal fallout continues, the Iowa case is poised to have national ramifications for how — and whether — law enforcement will be able to monitor and police illegal sports betting by athletes and how the NCAA may enforce its rules on gambling.

“It is literally an unregulated, almost completely unregulated, $2.5 billion industry,” one law enforcement source said.

“There is nothing ensuring compliance except for the sportsbooks’ pinky promise,” another added. “There’s no teeth.”

A FanDuel representative declined to comment. A DraftKings spokesperson told ESPN in a statement that the company “works closely with state gaming regulators and believes they hold operators to high standards” and is “proud to have played a role in bringing to light instances of suspicious activity.” (ESPN is a partner with Penn Entertainment, the operator of the ESPN BET sportsbook.)

Sportsbook industry executives who spoke on condition of anonymity said in an interview with ESPN that they are subject to multiple regulations, and it’s up to legislators and regulators to decide if there should be more. Enforcement is “not entirely on the sportsbooks. It’s an ecosystem,” one said, noting that the NCAA also has an obligation to better educate its athletes.

The athletes and their attorneys, meanwhile, point to what they call a vast overreach of police powers in a case that cost some of them their athletic careers.

“All it takes is an illegal investigation for you to miss out on the rest of your dreams,” former Iowa State running back Jirehl Brock said. “When your privacy was invaded and that’s the way that it happened, it puts an asterisk on the fact that we were doing it.”

ESPN spent four months reviewing emails and court filings in the case and interviewing multiple individuals close to the investigation, including attorneys, athletes, parents, school officials and Iowa criminal justice employees who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing lawsuit.

Throughout the reporting, a common thread was frustration: From law enforcement officials who feel powerless to police an exploding new industry they perceive as a threat to public health — and that is largely left to police itself — and from athletes who feel underinformed by their schools and persecuted by law enforcement they say operated outside its authority.

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David Purdum, ESPN

Banned NBA player Jontay Porter, who last week pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges related to an NBA betting scandal, is requesting permission from a federal judge to move to Greece and play basketball professionally there.

In court documents filed Tuesday in the Eastern District of New York, attorneys for Porter asked to modify his release to allow him to play for Promitheas BC in the Greek Basketball League and Champions League in Europe.

Porter is scheduled to be sentenced in New York on Dec. 18. His attorneys wrote that his overseas plans would not interfere with any of his legal obligations and that Promitheas BC officials are aware that Porter could be called back to the United States “at a moment’s notice.”

In a letter to Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall, Porter’s attorneys asked for his U.S. passport to be returned and for permission to travel in Europe and reside in Patras, Greece, with his wife and the baby they are expecting. The request is unopposed by the United States attorney’s office and the United States pretrial services officer, according to the document.

Porter would continue his treatment plan for gambling addiction while overseas, and the team is making opportunities available for in-person counseling in Greece, according to the filing.

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Mike Reiss, ESPN

The state of Louisiana has dropped the underage gambling and computer fraud charges against Kayshon Boutte, the Patriots wide receiver’s attorney confirmed to ESPN.

Boutte, 22, was arrested in January in Baton Rouge over allegations of illegal sports betting while he played at LSU. He was a full participant in spring practices earlier this year, and Patriots coach Jerod Mayo said in May regarding Boutte’s status that the organization would “wait to hear from the league going forward.”

An NFL spokesperson confirmed that the league has been following developments on the matter and that it remains under review. Boutte can continue to participate in all team activities, the spokesperson said.

Investigators assigned to the Louisiana State Police Gaming Enforcement Division found that Boutte bet on sports from April 6, 2022, until May 7, 2023, when he was 20. Boutte allegedly used an alias to get around the age requirement for placing sports wagers in Louisiana.

The alias account believed to have been used by Boutte placed more than 8,900 wagers, with at least 17 bets on NCAA football games — including at least six involving LSU, according to police.

Boutte’s wagering, according to police, continued for approximately a week after he was drafted. The NFL’s gambling policy allows players to bet on sports but not on anything related to the league.

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Wayne Parry, Associated Press

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — It might have seemed too good to be true, but there it was, and on April Fool’s Day, no less: One of the country’s leading sports books was taking bets on mixed martial arts fights that had already happened a week earlier.

FanDuel accepted 34 bets on the fights that were promoted by the sports book as live events scheduled to take place on April 1, 2022.

But the fights had actually taken place a week earlier, on March 25.

New Jersey gambling regulators fined FanDuel $2,000 for the mistake, and the company paid out over $230,000 to settle the bets.

FanDuel declined comment Wednesday on the fine, which it agreed to pay.

But the state Division of Gaming Enforcement said in a letter made public on Monday that FanDuel said it was not notified by its data-feed providers that the Professional Fighters League matches were actually a recording of events that had already happened.

Instead, FanDuel’s trading team manually created betting markets based on information they obtained directly from the Professional Fighters League, New Jersey Deputy Attorney General Gina DeAnnuntis wrote.

“FanDuel confirmed that its traders failed to confirm with PFL that the event had previously occurred and was being presented via a tape delay,” she wrote.

FanDuel told the state that on April 1, 2022, it took 26 online wagers and eight retail wagers worth $190,904 on the events.

Afterwards, FanDuel received a notification from the International Betting Integrity Association, which monitors sports betting transactions, looking for suspicious activity or out-of-the-ordinary patterns, that the events it was offering odds on had already happened.

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Associated Press, ESPN

NEW YORK — Former NBA player Jontay Porter admitted Wednesday that he schemed to take himself out of games for gambling’s sake, pleading guilty to a federal conspiracy crime in the scandal that already got him banned from the league.

“I know what I did was wrong, unlawful, and I am deeply sorry,” the former Toronto Raptors center said as he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Echoing findings in an NBA investigation and allegations in an ongoing prosecution of four other men, Porter acknowledged that he agreed to withdraw early from games so that co-conspirators could win bets on his performance.

He did it, he said, “to get out from under large gambling debts.”

Porter, 24, is free on $250,000 bond while awaiting sentencing set for Dec. 18.

Prosecutors estimated his sentence at a range from just under 3½ years in prison to a little over four years. Ultimately it will be up to a judge, who could impose anything from no time to 20 years behind bars. Porter also is likely to be assessed hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution and fines.

He and his lawyer left court without speaking to reporters. The attorney, Jeff Jensen, later declined by email to comment beyond a statement he made last month, in which he said Porter “was in over his head due to a gambling addiction.”

“Jontay is a good young man with strong faith that will get him through this,” Jensen said at the time.

Porter told the court he has undergone inpatient rehab for a gambling problem and remains in therapy.

In a related case, four other men are charged with scheming to profit off tips from an NBA player that he was going to exit two games early. They or their relatives used the knowledge to place big-winning bets that the athlete would do poorly in those games, according to a court complaint filed when they were charged in June. They haven’t yet entered pleas.

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Associated Press, ESPN

NEW YORK — Former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter will be charged with a federal felony connected to the sports betting scandal that spurred the NBA to ban him, court papers indicate.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn filed what’s known as a criminal information sheet Tuesday. The document doesn’t specify a court date or the charge or charges, but it does show the case is related to an existing prosecution of four men charged with scheming to cash in on tips from a player about his plans to exit two games early.

Porter’s lawyer, Jeff Jensen, said last month that Porter had been “in over his head due to a gambling addiction” but was getting treatment and cooperating with law enforcement.

Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace’s office declined to comment on the new developments.

An NBA investigation found in April that Porter tipped off bettors about his health and then claimed illness to exit at least one game, creating wins for anyone who had bet on him to underperform expectations. Porter also gambled on NBA games in which he didn’t play, once betting against his own team, the league said.

The four men charged last month appeared in court but haven’t yet entered pleas. They’re charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and were released on bonds in various amounts.

A court complaint against those four – Ammar Awawdeh, Timothy McCormack, Mahmud Mollah and Long Phi Pham – accused them of using prior knowledge of an NBA player’s plans so that they or their relatives could place winning bets on his performance.

The complaint identified the athlete only as “Player 1,” but details — and even a quote from an NBA news release — matched up with the league’s probe into Porter.

According to the complaint, the player owed “significant gambling debts” to Awawdeh, who encouraged the athlete to settle them with a “special”: intentionally exiting games so that bettors in the know could successfully wager on him falling short of what sportsbooks figured he’d do.

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David Purdum, ESPN

Authorities in Canada are opening a criminal investigation into the betting scandal involving former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter.

Craig Abrams, spokesperson for the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), told ESPN on Tuesday that the Investigation and Enforcement Bureau determined a criminal investigation is warranted after completing an assessment of available information related to “online betting irregularities from the Jan. 26 and March 20 Raptors games.”

Four men have been charged with wire fraud by U.S. authorities in New York in connection with prop bets placed on Porter’s statistics during the Jan. 26 game against the Los Angeles Clippers and the March 20 game against the Sacramento Kings. As of Tuesday, no charges against Porter have been announced.

Abrams told ESPN in an email that OPP is aware of the ongoing investigation by U.S. federal authorities and will be connecting with them as the investigation moves forward.

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Jeff Passan, ESPN

Major League Baseball announced Friday that it has disciplined umpire Pat Hoberg for violating the league’s gambling rules, 10 days after the league levied a lifetime ban on a player for gambling and suspended four others for one year.

Hoberg is appealing the discipline and, according to ESPN sources, has denied betting on baseball. The exact nature of the discipline is unknown, but Hoberg has not umpired a game this season. MLB, in a statement, did not indicate whether its investigation into Hoberg showed that he bet on baseball.

“During this year’s Spring Training, Major League Baseball commenced an investigation regarding a potential violation of MLB’s sports betting policies by Umpire Pat Hoberg. Mr. Hoberg was removed from the field during the pendency of that investigation,” the league said in its statement. “While MLB’s investigation did not find any evidence that games worked by Mr. Hoberg were compromised or manipulated in any way, MLB determined that discipline was warranted. Mr. Hoberg has chosen to appeal that determination. Therefore, we cannot comment further until the appeal process is concluded.”

Messages left for Hoberg by ESPN earlier this week went unreturned.

“I am appealing Major League Baseball’s determination that I should be disciplined for violating the sports betting policies. While that appeal is pending, it would not be appropriate to discuss the case,” Hoberg said in a statement. “That said, I have devoted my adult life to the profession of umpiring, and the integrity of baseball is of the utmost importance to me. I look forward to the appeal process, and I am grateful that the Major League Baseball Umpires Association is supporting me in the appeal.”

If he were found to have bet on baseball, Hoberg would be in violation of MLB’s Rule 21, which punishes those who gambled on games in which they were involved with a lifetime ban and games in which they weren’t with a yearlong suspension.

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