NCAA basketball players and
gamblers are charged for allegedly rigging games
[January 16, 2026]
By MARC LEVY and TASSANEE VEJPONGSA
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An investigation into a sprawling betting scheme
to rig NCAA and Chinese Basketball Association games has ensnared 26
people, including more than a dozen college basketball players who
tried to fix games as recently as last season, federal prosecutors
said Thursday.
The scheme generally revolved around gamblers who placed bets and
recruited players with the promise of a big payment in exchange for
purposefully underperforming during a game, prosecutors said. Those
fixers would then bet against the players’ teams in those games,
defrauding sportsbooks and other bettors, authorities said.
Calling it an “international criminal conspiracy,” U.S. Attorney
David Metcalf told reporters in Philadelphia that this case
represents a “significant corruption of the integrity of sports.”
The indictment suggests many others, including unnamed players, had
a role in the scheme but weren’t charged, and Metcalf said the
investigation was continuing.
The indictment is the latest gambling scandal to hit the sports
world since a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision unleashed a meteoric
rise in legal sports betting.
It follows a federal takedown of illegal gambling operations linked
to professional basketball, NCAA lifetime bans on at least 10
basketball players for betting and two Major League baseball players
facing federal charges that they took bribes to help gamblers.
The varying charges against the 26 defendants, filed in federal
court in Philadelphia, include bribery, wire fraud and conspiracy.
Five of the defendants were described as fixers; three with
connections to players through coaching and training and two
described as gamblers and sports handicappers.
The fixers started with two games in the Chinese Basketball
Association in 2023 and, successful there, moved on to rigging NCAA
games as recently as January 2025, the indictment said. Their scheme
grew to involve more than 39 players on more than 17 different NCAA
Division I men’s basketball teams, who then rigged and attempted to
rig more than 29 games, prosecutors said.
They wagered millions of dollars, raking in “substantial proceeds”
for themselves, and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to players
in bribes, prosecutors said. Payments to players typically ranged
from $10,000 to $30,000 per game, they said.
In a statement, NCAA President Charlie Baker said protecting the
integrity of competition is of the utmost importance for the NCAA
and that is investigating, or has finished investigating, almost all
of the teams in the indictment.
Prosecutors named more than 40 schools involved in games that were
targeted by the scheme. Those included Tulane University and DePaul
University.
Rigged games included major conferences and some playoffs, including
the first round of the Horizon League championship and the second
round of the Southland Conference championship, prosecutors said.
[to top of second column] |
David Metcalf, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania, speaks during a news conference to announce charges
against 20 people including 15 former college basketball players, in
what prosecutors called a betting scheme to rig NCAA and Chinese
Basketball Association games, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026 in
Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)
Players often recruited teammates to cooperate by
playing badly, sitting out or keeping the ball away from players who
weren’t in on the scheme to prevent them from scoring. Sometimes the
attempted fix failed, meaning the fixers lost their bets.
To entice players, fixers would text photos of stacks of cash. In
one case, a fixer encouraged a player to recruit a Saint Louis
University teammate by texting him one such photo: “send that to him
if he bite he bite if he don’t so be it lol,” the indictment said.
In another instance, a fixer trying to persuade an Eastern Michigan
University player to get two of his teammates to help fix a game
against Wright State University texted, “bro let me send 3k right
now a band for each of yall so you know I ain’t joking," the
indictment said.
Cash payments were hand delivered, although prosecutors noted that a
fixer didn't deliver the cash he promised to four Alabama State
University players who helped fix a 2024 game against the University
of Southern Mississippi.
Four of the players charged — Simeon Cottle, Carlos Hart, Oumar
Koureissi and Camian Shell — played for their current teams in the
last few days, although the allegations against them don't involve
this season, but the 2023-24 season.
Of the defendants, 15 played basketball for Division I NCAA schools
during 2024-25 season, prosecutors say. Five others last played in
the NCAA in the 2023-24 season while another, former NBA player
Antonio Blakeney, played in the Chinese Basketball Association in
the 2022-23 season.
At the end of the Chinese Basketball Association's 2022-23 season,
fixers put nearly $200,000 in bribe payments and shared winnings
from two rigged games into Blakeney's storage locker in Florida,
authorities said.
In 2023, court papers said one fixer reassured another by texting
him there were no guarantees “in this world but death taxes and
Chinese basketball.”
___
Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Associated Press writer
Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia contributed.
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