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Bert Neff, an Indiana businessman, was sentenced to eight months in prison on Monday for his role in a gambling scandal tied to the Alabama baseball program that resulted in the termination of that team's coach.
The University of Alabama fired its baseball coach Brad Bohannon last year after "suspicious betting" activity was found on a game between Alabama and LSU. Regulators in Ohio promptly ordered sportsbooks to stop taking bets on Alabama baseball moving forward.
The Ohio Casino Control Commission's investigation was centered on two bets on the Tigers to win from the same unidentified customer, multiple industry sources told ESPN. Inside info of the Crimson Tide's Luke Holman being scratched appeared to have contributed to the suspect wagers. The Louisiana Gaming Commission then confirmed those bets were placed somewhere in the Cincinnati area.
And security cameras played eyewitness to this particular crime.
On April 28, Neff walked into the BetMGM Sportsbook at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati in possession of a large amount of cash. Three people familiar with the investigation told Sports Illustrated that Neff wanted to bet more than $100,000 on a college baseball game that night.
How to Be a Baseball BookieJust think about it, on average there are 162 regular MLB game per season. If a gambler bets $100 on one team per season with a 10% vig, you can earn $1,620 from them. Multiply that by the number of friends you have that follow baseball and it can become quite high. |
Surveillance cameras at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati indicated that Neff Jr. was in communication with Alabama head coach Brad Bohannon, who has since been fired.
Neff's bets drew suspicion in that virtually nobody was wagering on this game and his attempted wagers on the Tigers far exceeded the sportsbook’s established house limit on college baseball.
It was at this point that Neff admitted he had "insider information". And the cameras caught a text exchange between Neff and Bohannon. Ironically, the two were texting via an encrypted app called Signal.
The book’s video surveillance cameras were able to zoom in on the details of Neff and Bohannon’s text exchange, making Bohannon’s name visible later in screenshots.
“[Video cameras] can see the [text] conversation back-and-forth,” a source familiar with the incident said at the time. “It couldn’t have been any more reckless.”
Neff’s son, Andrew, was a pitcher on the Cincinnati baseball roster.
Bert Neff will also serve three years of supervised release after he gets out of prison. He could have received up to a 10-year sentence after pleading guilty to obstructing a federal grand jury investigation.
“Faced with a federal grand jury investigation, he worked to game the system,” assistant U.S. attorney Edward Canter wrote in a sentencing memorandum obtained by AL.com. “The defendant destroyed evidence, tampered with witnesses, and provided false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He did not do this once. He did it on dozens of occasions, and he did so for the greater part of a year.”
Neff must report to a designated facility to begin serving his sentence by Oct. 29, according to court records.
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