Philadelphia-based federal law enforcement officials unveiled a sprawling indictment Thursday charging 26 people with participating in an NCAA men’s basketball gambling scheme that allegedly impacted nearly 30 games.
Gamblers recruited 39 players on 17 collegiate teams to partake in the point-shaving operation, which involved millions of dollars worth of bets that occurred as recently as February 2025, according to authorities.
Prosecutors charged 20 current and former college players and six “fixers,” who are accused of placing bets, recruiting student-athletes and delivering cash payouts to university campuses.
The ringleaders generally offered between $10,000 and $30,000 a game to a player willing to underperform so that their team would not cover a point spread set by sportsbooks, investigators said.
Often, they would recruit multiple players on a squad considered an underdog in a particular matchup; coach them on the particular spread through video calls and text messages; and instruct the athletes to allow the opponent to rack up a larger advantage, either over the course of a half or the entire game, according to the indictment. Bettors would then wager large amounts on the favored squad.
In some cases, players continued to participate in the point-shaving scheme even after transferring schools, the 70-page indictment alleges.
FBI agents assigned to the bureau’s Philadelphia field office spent two years on the investigation, and David Metcalf, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, hailed the probe as “historic.”
Metcalf said the conspiracy began with wagers on games in the Chinese Basketball Association featuring Antonio Blakeney, who played for the Chicago Bulls and featured alongside former 76ers star Ben Simmons at Louisiana State University before competing professionally overseas.
Pro gamblers and influencers Marves Fairley, 40, and “Sugar” Shane Hennen, also 40, who splits time between Philadelphia and Nevada, got Blackeney, a top scorer in the CBA, to play poorly in certain games in an effort to guarantee results, prosecutors said.
In March 2023, Fairley and Hennen wagered nearly $200,000 at Rivers Casino in Fishtown that Blackeney’s Jiangsu Dragons would lose to the Guangdong Southern Tigers by more than 11 points, according to the indictment. Blackeney averaged more than 32 points a game, but he scored just 11 that night and the Dragons lost by more than 30 points.
A month later, following the CBA season, Fairley placed around $200,000 in cash in a Florida storage unit belonging to Blackeney as payment for fixing games in China, authorities assert.
The trio then turned their attention to NCAA men’s basketball, enlisting the aid of North Carolina-based trainer Jalen Smith, former high school and AAU coach Roderick Winkley and former college player Alberto Laureano to help convince current student-athletes to “throw” games, investigators indicated.
While the arrangement allegedly raked in plenty of cash, the efforts of the fixers were sometimes unsuccessful.
In one such example, Smith and Blakeney tried to reel in members of La Salle University’s basketball team, offering bribes to players in an attempt to underperform in the first half of a February 2024 game between the Explorers and St. Bonaventure University, the indictment says.
Nearly $250,000 dollars in bets — some made at the Live! Casino Hotel in South Philadelphia — were placed on the Bonnies to cover a 5.5-point spread at the Tom Gola Arena, officials said. However, to the dismay of the operation’s leaders, La Salle entered the break with an 8-point lead.
No one was charged as part of the case for alleged point-shaving at La Salle or any other Philadelphia-area school.
Fairley and Hennen are among the defendants named in a high-profile New York-based indictment issued in October that also included the Miami Heat’s Terry Rozier.
Metcalf said that case, filed in New York, is related to the Philadelphia indictment. But it deals more with the sharing of insider information to aid bettors, he told reporters, rather than players coordinating to purposefully play poorly.
“The former is a crime against sports betting markets. The latter is a crime against the sport itself,” he added. “And that's what this case is about. That's what makes it different and, in my opinion, worse.”
The U.S. Attorney acknowledged a recent rise in criminal allegations surrounding sports-related gambling. The relaxation in betting regulations, combined with NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) compensation for college athletes, created the conditions that allowed for the point-shaving scheme, Metcalf said.
“Certain players were targeted because they were somewhat missing out on NIL,” he added.
NCAA President Charlie Baker, in a statement Thursday, said the pattern of misconduct documented in the indictment “is not entirely new information” to the association.
“Through helpful collaboration and with industry regulators, we have finished or have open investigations into almost all of the teams in today's indictment,” he continued.
Baker, in a corresponding video, said none of the players named in the investigation will be able to participate in NCAA competitions moving forward. He is also urging state regulators and gaming companies to ban “prop” bets on college games, particular first half “under” wagers.
