This thing is picking up some serious steam.
There was a very interesting story that dropped a couple of days ago where David Purdum from ESPN reported that Ohio state regulators had banned betting on Alabama college baseball games. Here is the article if you want to read it but I will also summarize it below:
Long story short, a betting firm in Las Vegas that monitors the markets on behalf of certain books and regulators sent out a report to their clients saying that there was “suspicious wagering activity” on the Alabama/LSU baseball game that day. There were two bets placed in Cincinnati that day that triggered the warning, “One was on a parlay which involved the LSU-Alabama game, and then there was another straight-up (money line) bet,” said Ronnie Johns, chairman of the board. “I was told it was a large bet that involved LSU-Alabama.”
After this happened, the state of Ohio took down Alabama baseball games on every book and FanDuel took them down nationally as a precaution. This was obviously easily detected because college baseball is a relatively small market with a low handle compared to any professional sport or college basketball or football. If someone in Ohio is pushing a 5 or 6-figure bet across the counter on an SEC baseball game, it would be significantly the largest wager that book has taken on that game and would be an instant trigger. So if there is something nefarious going on here, the people involved are not very smart.
This was already a fascinating story and then today there was a significant development when this announcement hit the TL:
Brad Bohannon has been the Alabama baseball coach since 2018 and has a 30-15 record this season. Now I have been in the replies and apparently, Alabama fans wanted him fired anyways. However, this timing is far too suspicious, especially since the press release said he was fired for “violating the standards, duties, and responsibilities expected of University employees.” That is not for failing to live up to expectations on the field.
Also in the statement, “there will be no further comment at this time as it is an ongoing investigation.” Again, you don’t need an ongoing investigation to find out that Alabama has only made the NCAA Tournament once in Bohannon’s tenure, so there has to be something real in this betting scandal.
Now, as the great Nate Oats once said maybe Brad Bohannon was just “in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Perhaps he “accidentally” gave his buddy in Cincinnati some info that his buddy realized was actionable and went and made a big bet. Unfortunately, the specifics of the bet never went public so we don’t know whether the suspicious bet won or not. We do know, however, that Alabama lost the game in question.
I will stay on this story like a hawk and be sure to come to you with any more updates.
Blakey Locks 