Federal investigators are examining whether an organized gambling group attempted to fix NCAA basketball games last season after sportsbooks flagged dozens of suspicious wagers targeting the same small-conference teams over a six-week stretch.
Documents obtained by ESPN, which first reported the story, detail a series of large bets placed on first-half spreads between Dec. 1, 2024, and mid-January 2025. In multiple instances, bettors repeatedly wagered against the same programs and won, prompting alerts from at least nine regulated sportsbooks in 13 states and one Canadian province.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania is leading the federal investigation. Multiple sources told ESPN the FBI has interviewed college athletes and expects indictments to follow.
Pattern of suspicious bets emerges
Integrity monitoring firm IC360 circulated emails to sportsbooks warning of coordinated betting behavior that it described as consistent with a syndicate attempting to manipulate outcomes. In some cases, customers reappeared after weeks of inactivity or created new sports betting accounts to place unusually large or consecutive bets on first-half point spreads.
The games in question involved five of the six schools where the NCAA says 13 former players are under investigation for gambling-related activity:
- Eastern Michigan
- Temple
- New Orleans
- North Carolina A&T
- Mississippi Valley State.
The first alert came Dec. 1, when bettors heavily backed Norfolk State to cover the first-half spread against Stony Brook, a school not publicly linked to the NCAA’s investigation. One account placed nine $300 wagers after a period of dormancy, while other customers opened brand-new accounts to make “excessive” bets. The sportsbook halted wagering after the line shifted, but Norfolk State led 34–27 at halftime and covered.
NCAA bets linked to alleged syndicate
Three weeks later, a group carrying tens of thousands of dollars arrived at Harrah’s Gulf Coast in Biloxi, MS, and placed a series of large wagers. Bets included $2,500 and $1,700 on Tulsa against Mississippi Valley State and more than $9,000 combined on Wright State against Eastern Michigan. All the bets were easy winners, according to the documents.
An incident report from IC360 noted “a potential tie” between the bettors and others flagged for similar wagers in previous seasons. Caesars Entertainment, which operates Harrah’s, concluded that several bettors knew one another and were linked to the same network. One was arrested days later on federal drug and money-laundering charges and described by prosecutors as a “prolific” trafficker who wagered more than $10 million in four years.
Sportsbook reports identified Marves Fairley, a Mississippi man who sells betting picks online, as “the main syndicate suspect.”
Fairley, who has not been charged, denied involvement and said he does not bet on college games. He told ESPN he knows Shane Hennen, a co-conspirator in the federal case against former Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter, who admitted to manipulating his performance in NBA games for betting purposes.
NCAA investigation expanding beyond college basketball
The alleged betting activity extended into January, including five-figure wagers against Eastern Michigan and North Carolina A&T and repeated bets against New Orleans, whose program suspended four players in late January amid gambling allegations.
The investigation overlaps with a broader federal crackdown on game manipulation that includes the NBA. Hennen, who prosecutors say coordinated millions of dollars in illicit wagers through a network of proxies, is negotiating a plea deal.
“Protecting the integrity of the game and preventing student-athletes from making bad decisions is a massive undertaking,” NCAA senior vice president Tim Buckley said in a statement to ESPN.
