March Madness is one of the nation’s biggest betting events of the year. But the scourge of insider player betting and the threat of organized match-fixing is as prevalent at the annual NCAA event as in any other sporting discipline and eSports.
Given that the American Gaming Association (AGA) predicts an estimated $3.1 billion in wagering handle this year, ESI examines the technology and the processes being deployed to weed out fraudulent betting activities.
In a bid to crack down on gambling violations such as student-athletes betting, the NCAA is using an advanced form of bet monitoring technology in the form of ProhiBet.
Using sophisticated compliance software, the tool can be used to continuously cross reference NCAA athletes, coaches, and staff personal details, such as names, emails, and phone numbers, against known sportsbook databases.
As a result, it will immediately flag any unauthorized wagering practices to the NCAA before the game starts.
Wider Betting Problems Across Sports
The problem is so prevalent that the SEC and several other major conferences have also directed schools to use ProhiBet as they seek to prevent athlete-betting infractions.
Perhaps the most high-profile incident of its kind was in Texas, where the technology identified five individuals, including two football players, whose combined wagering totaled nearly $15,000 on fantasy sports site PrizePicks.
In addition to the threat of insider betting, NCAA President Charlie Baker is also looking to ban prop bets, citing the rapid surge in player and coach harassment by disgruntled gamblers as the reason for the notion.
In fact, the problem has reached such a level that one in three athletes in heavily bet-on sports have reported receiving threats or intimidation.
Outside Factors and eSports Violations
The menace of match-fixing and points shaving isn’t just limited to monitoring athletes and coaches. External operatives are also able to influence results – for example the questionable goings-on that resulted in the MLB dismissing Umpire Pat Hoberg recently.
Similarly, eSports has also fallen victim to cases of wrongdoing, such as the case involving Fortnite gamer Morgan ‘RepulseGod’ Bamford following his recent ban after being caught cheating in the Fortnite Championship Series (FNCS) in 2023.
However, unlike conventional sports, eSports lacks a properly unified governing body to regulate gamers and possible fraudulent gambling discrepancies.
The NCAA is actively deploying monitoring tools such as ProhiBet during March Madness. Hwoever, with the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE), which oversees college-level gaming, doesn’t have quite the same degree to ensure the same levels of matchday integrity.
