In January, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced charges against twenty-six individuals in connection with an alleged bribery and point-shaving scheme involving NCAA Division I men’s basketball games.[1] The scheme allegedly involved thirty-nine players across more than seventeen NCAA men’s basketball teams, including at least one team in North Carolina, who attempted to fix more than twenty-nine NCAA games during the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 seasons.[2] According to the indictment, “fixers” recruited and bribed collegiate athletes to ensure their teams underperformed, then placed bets on the manipulated outcomes.[3] The fixers allegedly communicated with players in person, and via social media, text messages, and phone calls, offering bribes ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 per game to participate in the scheme.[4] The indictment further alleges that the fixers targeted athletes whose compensation from “Name, Image, and Likeness” (NIL) opportunities was limited, such that the bribes would substantially supplement or exceed their NIL earnings.[5] On March 9, 2026, a fixer residing in Charlotte, North Carolina, became the first to plead guilty to the charges.[6]
This case is one example of how state authorization of sports betting may impact competition integrity. Bettors in North Carolina have wagered more than $13 billion since the state authorized sports betting in House Bill 347 in 2024.[7] Unlike more restrictive states,[8] North Carolina law permits a wide variety of sports wagers on collegiate sports, including proposition wagers or “prop bets.”[9] Such bets are defined as “a wager on an individual action, statistic, occurrence, or nonoccurrence to be determined during a sporting event and includes any such action, statistic, occurrence, or nonoccurrence that does not directly affect the final outcome of the sporting event to which it relates.”[10]
States such as New York and New Jersey do not permit any wagering on in-state collegiate teams.[11] Six states specifically ban proposition bets on collegiate sports due to concerns regarding athlete harassment and overall competition integrity.[12] Because such wagers are based on individual player performance, such as the number of points scored or the number of recorded rebounds, gameplay manipulation is particularly difficult to detect.[13] Thus, such wagers threaten the integrity of the game not only through outside bribery but also by creating opportunities for athletes to bet on their own performance.[14] The NCAA has investigated approximately forty student-athletes across twenty schools in the last year alone, including several cases involving individual proposition bets.[15] The unilateral nature of such bets, in which a single player can fix the outcome, increases the risk of manipulation beyond wagers tied to overall game outcomes. This unilateral action makes fraud both more tempting for players and more difficult for regulators and sports betting operators to detect.[16] This is of particular concern for college athletes who may be more susceptible to outside influences and financial pressures.[17] The January indictment underscores this concern, alleging that defendants targeted athletes who stood to benefit most from such financial incentives.[18]
Because of such threats to the integrity of competition, the NCAA has continually advocated for state regulators to ban individual proposition wagers at the collegiate level.[19] The NCAA cites not only the risk of athlete harassment by disgruntled bettors but also broader threats to fair play. Player prop bets increase the risk of insider information being leveraged to manipulate wagers, as student-athletes are more accessible to student populations and the general public than professional ones.[20] The NCAA has also specifically raised concerns about prop bets facilitating “spot-fixing,” where fixers recruit student-athletes to manipulate discrete aspects of the game, such as first-half under spreads, as alleged in the January indictment.[21] Overall, the NCAA has continually urged lawmakers to consider the harmful consequences of prop bets for both student-athletes and the broader college student population, where gambling addiction is on the rise,[22] and to ban proposition wagers at the collegiate level.[23]
There appears to be some support among North Carolina legislators for this proposal. House Bill 967 in the 2023-2024 legislative session sought to specifically exclude proposition wagers on collegiate sports from the state’s sports betting legislation.[24] Similar language has been reintroduced in the 2025-2026 session as House Bill 828.[25]In addition to state action, federal legislators have also considered sports-betting legislation with the SAFE Bet Act, introduced in 2024, proposing to ban individual proposition wagers on collegiate teams as part of a broader scheme of sports wagering reform.[26] For now, however, proposition wagers remain prevalent. Their popularity, despite their relative inaccuracy for bettors, makes them a highly profitable mechanism in the sports book market.[27]
[1] 26 People Charged in Alleged Bribery and Point-Shaving Scheme to Fix NCAA Men’s Basketball Games, U.S.Att’ys Off. E. Dist. of Pa.: Press Release (Jan. 15 2026), https://www.justice.gov/usao-edpa/pr/26-people-charged-alleged-bribery-and-point-shaving-scheme-fix-ncaa-cba-mens.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Fixer in NCAA Basketball Point-Shaving Scheme Pleads Guilty, ESPN (Mar. 9, 2026), https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/48154547/fixer-ncaa-basketball-point-shaving-scheme-pleads-guilty.
[7] H.B. 347, Gen. Assemb., Sess. 2023 (N.C. 2023).
[8] State of Play, Am. Gaming Ass’n, https://www.americangaming.org/research/state-of-play-map/ (last visited Mar. 18, 2026).
[9] H.B. 967, Gen. Assemb., Sess. 2023 (N.C. 2024).
[10] Id.
[11] Am. Gaming Ass’n, supra note 8.
[12] See id.; NCAA Urges Gambling Commissions to Eliminate Prop Bets, NCAA (Jan. 15, 2026), https://www.ncaa.org/news/2026/1/15/media-center-ncaa-urges-gambling-commissions-to-eliminate-prop-bets.aspx.
[13] Keith O’Brien, Sports Can’t Survive Prop Bets, The Atlantic (Oct. 24, 2025), https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/10/nba-gambling-prop-bets/684679/.
[14] NCAA, supra note 13.
[15] Id.
[16] O’Brien, supra note 14.
[17] David Purham, Big Ten’s SAIC asks Charlie Baker, NCAA to ban prop bets on college athletes, ESPN (Feb. 10, 2026), https://www.espn.com/espn/betting/story/_/id/47890380/big-ten-saic-asks-charlie-baker-ncaa-ban-prop-bets-college-athletes.
[18] U.S.Att’ys Off. E. Dist. of Pa.: Press Release, supra note 1.
[19] NCAA, supra note 13.
[20] Id.
[21] Id.
[22] Oliver Staley, An Explosion in Sports Betting Is Driving Gambling Addiction Among College Students, Time (Dec. 12, 2023), https://time.com/6342504/gambling-addiction-sports-betting-college-students/.
[23] NCAA, supra note 13.
[24] H.B. 967, Gen. Assemb., Sess. 2023 (N.C. 2024).
[25] H.B. 828, Gen. Assemb., Sess. 2025 (N.C. 2025).
[26] SAFE Bet Act, S. 1033, 119th Cong. (2025).
[27] O’Brien, supra note 14.
