Sports games in 2025: a look back at this year’s controversies

Over the years, as sports betting has become a norm, lines have been crossed.

In 2023, several NFL players were suspended for multiple games for violating the league’s gaming policy. Later that year, Iowa and Iowa State athletes were punished. A year later, Shohei Ohtani found himself in controversy after millions of dollars under his name were paid for gambling debts. Eventually, the FBI discovered that it was his former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, who had stolen his money to repay his own losses.

In April of that year, NBA player Jontay Porter was permanently banned from the NBA after withdrawing from games prematurely to free himself from heavy gambling debts so that he and his co-conspirators could win bets on his performance.

But this year, the FBI’s involvement has increased as high-profile athletes have been accused of serious wrongdoing.

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Perhaps the biggest takedown was that of three NBA figures linked to an investigation with La Cosa Nostra. Terry Rozier, Chauncey Billups and Damon Jones were all arrested in October and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.

Rozier was placed on leave and under investigation by the NBA in February, following a 2023 game in which he played less than 10 minutes for the Charlotte Hornets. Rozier allegedly told a childhood friend, Deniro Laster, that he would pull out of a match early, citing injury so Laster could place bets based on that information.

Neither Hornets officials nor the betting companies were informed of Rozier’s plan, according to the indictment, and Rozier was not listed on the team’s injury report. Laster allegedly sold this information to other co-conspirators, and numerous people placed bets totaling approximately $200,000 on Rozier’s “slot” bets to hit both parlay and straight bets. After Rozier played only nine minutes and never returned, the bets were won. Rozier and Laster counted the cash winnings at Rozier’s Charlotte home about a week later, the indictment says.

Billups, the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, and Jones, a former player and coach, allegedly knowingly participated in rigged poker games. Billups and Jones were allegedly nicknamed “face cards,” who according to an indictment were “members of the cheating crews and received a portion of the proceeds of crime in exchange for their participation in the scheme.” The scheme caused victims to lose at least $7.15 million, dating back to April 2019, according to the Justice Department.

(Left) Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups speaks to a referee during a first-half timeout against the Sacramento Kings at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon on October 10, 2025. (Right) Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier (2) leaves the court after the game against the Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan on November 12, 2024. (Jaime Valdez/Imagn Images;Rick Osentoski/Imagn Images)

Billups is not involved in the sports betting scandal that led to Rozier’s arrest. However, the DOJ cited a Trail Blazers-Chicago Bulls game on March 24, 2023, the day after Rozier’s alleged wrongdoing, during which a co-conspirator, “an NBA coach at the time” allegedly told a longtime friend, who is also a defendant in the rigged poker scheme, that the Blazers would be “pitching” that night for a top draft pick and would sit some of the best players on the team. The rest of the players were not yet made public. The team’s top four scorers, including Damian Lillard, did not all play that night because other co-conspirators allegedly bet more than $100,000 in total against Portland. The “co-conspirator” in question is listed as a former NBA player whose career spanned “from approximately 1997 to 2014” and “an NBA coach since at least 2021.” Only Billups meets this criterion.

Jones allegedly told a relative that a “prominent” Lakers player would not play on February 9, 2023, before the information was public, and told the person to make a “big bet” on his opponent. The DOJ says the player was ultimately ruled out due to a lower body injury – ESPN reported that the player in question is LeBron James, who was ruled out due to an ankle injury. The game in question took place two days after James scored 38 points to become the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. Jones also allegedly gave inside information about another “one of the Lakers’ best players” 11 months later regarding an injury that might affect his performance, which ultimately backfired as the player “played well” and the Lakers won.

All three figures have pleaded not guilty, while Rozier and Billups remain on administrative leave.

A few weeks later, the FBI announced the arrests of Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, who were placed on leave by Major League Baseball over the summer.

Officials said in an indictment that from May 2023 to June 2025, Clase agreed with a co-conspirator to “throw specific pitches in certain MLB games” so that bettors they allegedly associated with would “profit from illegal bets made based on this inside information.” Ortiz would have joined the program in June 2025.

Cleveland Guardians pitcher Emmanuel Clase during a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants in San Francisco on June 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, file)

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The indictment says Clase talked with a punter about throwing a ball on the first pitch of an at-bat when he was brought to games in relief. The indictment alleged instances that occurred in specific matches, including on May 19, 2023, against the New York Mets; June 2, 2023, against the Minnesota Twins; and June 7, 2023 against the Boston Red Sox.

Clase allegedly began demanding and receiving bribes and kickbacks for agreeing to pitch specific plots of land in April, according to the indictment. In one instance, Clase allegedly used his phone in the middle of a game to coordinate with a punter on a pitch he would throw. Punters have reportedly won $400,000 on betting platforms on throws launched by Clase between 2023 and 2025.

When Ortiz allegedly joined the system, the indictment said he agreed to throw balls on strikes on certain pitches in exchange for bribes or kickbacks. He reportedly agreed to throw a pitch on June 15 against the Seattle Mariners for about $5,000 on his first pitch in the second inning. The indictment says Ortiz agreed to throw a ball June 27 against the St. Louis Cardinals for $7,000 on his first pitch of the third inning.

The FBI also dismantled an illegal sports betting ring allegedly operated by Joseph M. “Little Joe” Pernaidentified as a member of the Lucchese, New Jersey crime family, in which two of the 14 arrested were former NCAA wrestlers. The two former wrestlers were charged with first-degree racketeering, first-degree money laundering by promotion, second-degree conspiracy, third-degree promoting gambling by making bets, and third-degree possession of gambling records.

MLB announced in February that it had fired longtime umpire Pat Hoberg for sharing his legal sports gambling accounts with a friend who bet on baseball games and intentionally deleting email messages relevant to the league’s investigation. The league opened an investigation into Hoberg last February after a sportsbook brought him to officials’ attention.

The league said that although the investigation failed to uncover evidence that he personally bet on baseball or manipulated games, MLB senior vice president Michael Hill recommended on May 24 that Hoberg be fired. Hoberg did not referee last season. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred confirmed Hill’s decision.

MLB umpire Pat Hoberg observes a game between the Minnesota Twins and the Chicago Cubs on May 12, 2023 at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Hemmelgarn Orthosis/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images)

In September, three Division I college basketball Players Mykell Robinson, Steven Vasquez and Jalen Weaver have been permanently banned from the NCAA for allegedly betting on their own games. The NCAA said all three players bet on each other’s games and/or provided information allowing others to do so during the 2024-25 regular season and that two of them even manipulated their performances to ensure certain bets won.

Thirty-nine states, including Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, have currently legalized some form of sports gambling. So it’s hard to imagine that we’ve seen anything other than the tip of the iceberg.