Sports betting is often a point of confrontation between operators and the public, especially when it comes to the college sports betting industry. However, everyone agrees that one of the main problems when it comes to college sports betting is the lack of transparency.
An important part of the meeting:
Kirby Smart, the coach from Georgia, commented on it: “If everybody’s giving an injury report, I have no problem giving an injury report. They do it in the NFL. I was in the NFL. That’s not a huge deal as long as it’s a level playing field.”
In spring meetings held by the Southeastern Conference, the main focus has been put on the issues in the college sports betting industry. The U.S. Integrity was invited by commissioner Greg Sankey to present its solutions to various SEC coaches and administrators who were present at the meeting. The Integrity will also be monitoring both professional and college sports leagues conferences in order to reduce improprieties in the industry.
The most recent events at Alabama shook up the whole industry since the baseball coach Brad Bohannon was fired after it was found that he was included in the suspicious bets on the game between Tide and LSU in April this year. The bets were placed in a sportsbook at the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. It was found out that he communicated with Bert Neff of Mooresville from Indiana, who was betting on that game, which is strictly prohibited. The University of Cincinnati also investigates Neff, and two other members of the basketball staff were fired because of their connection with him.
Education of the athletes:
One of the priorities will be educating athletes to reduce any possible risk of them being involved in sports betting activities. It will include incorporating NCAA’s rules which will have to be followed. The authorities will pay special attention to the Iowa athletes since 40 of them are currently under investigation related to their potential involvement in illegal gambling activities. Since sports betting is legal in 38 states, the investigators will have to work a lot to maintain order in all of them.
Shane Beamer, one of the coaches from South Carolina, said: “We had coaches in that meeting room that were asking questions from a betting standpoint, gambling standpoint, what’s legal, what’s not legal? So if we have questions about it and I have questions about it, then surely our student-athletes do as well.”
Sankey doesn’t believe that an injury report will solve the major problems since it won’t be released soon, and even when it does, it won’t address the major problems in the industry. He added: “I told our football coaches that the simple solution of ‘we want an injury report’ is not what I’m going to think about. But as information becomes more and more in demand because of the increases in sports gambling, we’re going to have to think about a sophisticated response to managing our information.”
