According to the Los Angeles Times, five men pleaded guilty to what are deemed federal crimes for taking part in an illegal sports betting operation in Southern California. The men allegedly took bets from professional athletes as part of the ring’s operations.

The man who stood at the head of the ring is 45-year-old Wayne Nix who played as a pitcher in the Oakland Athletics minor league system.

Court papers show that Nix is accused of using his professional sports contacts to build a gambling business, starting around two decades ago.  Nix allegedly added professional athletes to his list of clients and expanded until he became a major enterprise. 

Three ex-MLB players acted as agents who would recruit bettors and direct them to a Costa Rica-based betting company, Sand Island Sports. Players opened accounts at the site and placed bets on the outcome of major sporting events.

Some of the things that Nix is accused of:

• Allowing a client to place a $5 million wager on the 2019 Super Bowl in Atlanta.
• Allowing the business manager of a professional basketball player to bet $25,000 on NBA games.
• Receiving $245,000 from a professional football player to cover gambling losses.

Federal agents tapped Nixs phones after informants provided information about his business. He is now being accused of running an illegal gambling business and failing to report taxes.

The investigation is ongoing.

Arizona’s Department of Gaming published its monthly revenue report covering the month of January. The authority showed that record-breaking numbers were wagered, with Arizonians spending $564 million and winning back $522 million.

Most of the wagers were made through licensed online sportsbooks, operated by local Native American tribes or professional sports teams.  There is an 8% levy on retail wagers made by players, and 10% made on mobile apps.

Legalized sports betting – in its fifth month in Arizona – is offered on 12 online platforms and via two brick and mortar casinos that operate in the state.  All the operators combined – after federal tax – made slightly more than $40 million.

Daily Fantasy Sports saw spending of just under $4 million which incorporated entry fees and profits (before taxes).

From the time sports betting launched in September 2021 until the end of the year, bets to the tune of $1.7 billion were made. Sportsbooks made $60 million profit during this time period.

It is estimated that sports betting can bring in up to $100 million per year to the state, although the number will probably be lower than that.

Under Arizona’s updated sports betting laws, ten licenses can be awarded to professional sports teams, while the other ten can be awarded to Native American tribes.

A number of operators have been approved by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario ahead of the slated launch of sports betting in the Canadian province. Among them is BetMGM, which got its approval on Monday.

The launch date for the industry is April 4th.

BetMGM hopes to be one of the first sportsbooks to offer Ontarians the opportunity to bet on sports. Last month, the head of communications and public relations for the group, Elisa Richardson said: “We’re gearing up to launch with our BetMGM product offerings in Ontario once the regulated market opens.”

BetMGM is a joint venture between MGM Resorts and Entain. The latter also plans to enter the market on another license with its iconic Party brand.

The gambling commission said that a number of operators were approved on Monday, together with BetMGM.  It said in a statement that it was continuing to work closely with all who have applied to join the market.

“Not every operator will be ready to launch their services on day one,” said the AGCO. “Some are more ready than others. This means Ontario’s new igaming industry will steadily expand in the weeks and months following April 4th.”

The list of approved operators includes: Coolbet, Royal Panda, Unibet, LeoVegas and WSOP, among others.

The International Betting Integrity Association has increased its efforts to fight sports-betting fraud in Colombia by linking up with the country’s Federation of Entrepreneurs of Games of Luck and Chances

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was inked between the two entities, in which it was decided that they intend establishing joint projects to protect the integrity of sports and sports betting operators in Columbia.

The CEO of IBIA, Khalid Ali, said that the group was happy to collaborate with the Federation in a bid to tackle match-fixing.

“The establishment of the Colombian National Committee for the prevention of manipulation of sports competitions is the first of its kind in the Latin American region,” said Ali. “Fecoljuegos played an important role in its launch and we fully support the call for integrity provisions to be included in the gambling legislation”.

Global Body Fighting for Sports Betting Integrity

The IBIA monitoring system, which covers $137 billion in betting transactions each year, is considered the leading voice for integrity and fairness in the licensed sports betting industry.

It picks up and reports suspicious betting patterns, helping authorities around the world bring criminal sanctions against teams or players.

In the past four years, IBIA has alerted 120 cases to Latin America authorities, nine of which took place in Columbia

March Madness is gripping the United States as millions of people bet on college basketball. In states like Iowa, gambling authorities expect to see records set when it comes to money wagered on sports in March.

The Racing and Gaming Administrator in the state, Brian Ohorilka was quoted in a radio interview saying that March 2021 was the highest month handle, with sports bettors wagering more than $161 million.

He believes that this number will be eclipsed this month since there are more licensed sports gambling companies operating in the market. Another reason why sports betting numbers will grow is that there is a lot of Iowa representation in post-season tournaments.

“Generally with more operators, it’s reasonable to assume that we’ll have increased revenue from last year at this time,” he said. “The other factor is we have success from the Iowa teams. When there are Iowa teams participating it will draw the more casual fan and increased traffic.”

The administrator told Radio Iowa that sports betting companies have set up responsible gambling features so that players can control their apps and set limits. He warned players not to get carried away during March Madness and reminded them that sports betting shouldn’t be any different to casino gambling – it should be fun, using discretional income and should be avoided if someone has a tendency towards addictive behavior.