2007 NBA betting scandal
Betting scandal in the National Basketball Association in 2007 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The 2007 NBA betting scandal was a scandal involving the National Basketball Association (NBA) and accusations that an NBA referee used his knowledge of relationships between referees, coaches, players and owners to bet on professional basketball games. In July 2007, reports of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were made public, which alleged that during the 2005–06 and 2006–07 NBA seasons, referee Tim Donaghy bet on games in which he officiated.[1] Donaghy later admitted to betting on games he officiated in each of the 2003–04, 2004–05, 2005–06, and 2006–07 seasons.[2] Donaghy's claims that instead of altering game outcomes as an on-court referee to advance his bets he exploited "inside information" to wager on NBA games (including almost as many games he didn't officiate) were assailed by his co-conspirators and researchers. Pro gamblers, some of whom cooperated with the government, explained the only reason they got involved in the scandal was the betting win rate on games officiated by Donaghy, and each of Donaghy's co-conspirators (including government cooperator and Donaghy best friend Tommy Martino) stated the bets were originally exclusively on games Donaghy officiated with a few "non-Donaghy" games toward the end of the 4-year scandal (which were losers, causing gamblers to stop taking the bets).[3][4][5][6] Researchers with unique access to offshore betting accounts and electronic betting records in addition to betting line data illustrated the betting activity was on games officiated by Donaghy.[7][8][6]
On August 15, 2007, Donaghy pleaded guilty to two federal charges related to the investigation, and a year later he was sentenced to 15 months in prison and three years of supervised release.