The FBI is currently conducting an investigating regarding allegations that a veteran NBA referee affected the outcome of games. The unnamed referee is to have placed wagers on games while being a part of the officiating crew. The exploration is set to determine whether or not the referee made calls to affect the point spread in games over the last 2 seasons. The number of games this transpired in is still unknown, but reports are it could be in the double digits. The unnamed ref reportedly had a gambling problem and was approached by members of organized crime to fix games to settle his debts.
Since the source of the probe is unnamed the speculation has already begun as to who the culprit is. Some fans and sports bettors are presuming Joey Crawford is the favorite to be the guy busted, but it seems unlikely to Maddux Sports that if he is the “dirty ref,” why he would have just been reinstated by David Stern.
We do know he did eject Tim Duncan in quite an unorthodox fashion, but that’s it, unless others have something more conclusive relating to the NBA point spread above and beyond speculation.
Multiple sources are reporting that veteran Tim Donaghy is a possible guy. Donaghy, recently resigned from the NBA after a 13-year career with the league, and is aware of the FBI investigation. This doesn’t confirm that Donaghy is the man since earlier reports have claimed that the “dirty ref� is still employed by the National Basketball League.
To date there hasn’t been a serious referee scandal involving shaving points in the NBA or any major United States sports league. They did bust one NBA clock operator in Detroit years back. He was making sports bets on the unders of Detroit Pistons games and fast running the clock to increase his chances of the game going under.
These allegations don’t surprise Maddux Sports at all. If you bet on NBA games you know that there has been a lot of bizarre stuff going on at the end of games that can’t be attributed to random variance. As with the Toledo point shaving scandal once more information is known we will go through past histories of games involving the offender and see what we can uncover for the media outlets.
Feel free to contact Tom at MadduxSports.com or call us toll free at 1-800-9-MADDUX to discuss further.
Maddux Sports is an expert sports handicapper that studies betting lines as well as offering NBA picks during the basketball season.
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