U.S. Integrity President Tells TheLines About New Role As Big 12 Betting Watchdog

College Football, Featured, Industry, News

Written By Eli Hershkovich on August 25, 2023

The Big 12 Conference and U.S. Integrity announced their newfound partnership on Wednesday. It will assist the league with monitoring software and tools. In turn, the independent Las Vegas-based firm aims to play a critical role in negating student-athletes and others in positions prohibited from betting from engaging in sports wagers, which includes Big 12 betting. Exclusive insight on the agreement from Matthew Holt, the former COO of Cantor Gaming and now-president of U.S. Integrity, is below.

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Specifics on U.S. integrity affiliation

Thanks to the deal, Big 12 officials and every program in the conference are supplied with the essential operating tools from U.S. Integrity’s monitoring software and resources. Student-athletes, coaches, staff, and officials will obtain access to these assets. They cover mandated annual on-site training and weekly integrity surveillance for all sports.

Keep in mind, U.S. Integrity already has collaborated with the SEC, Big Ten, Pac-12, Big East, AAC, Mountain West, Conference USA, WCC, and Big Sky. Hence, Holt and his team delivered a dent — in regards to limiting illegal wagering — across college athletics. However, the Big 12 Conference jumped in at an ideal time.

The partnership will provide the conference with access to ProhiBet, which launches Sept. 1. It serves as a technology resource for sports properties and sportsbook operators to guarantee that athletes, coaches, and administrative staff continue their cooperation with sports betting regulations. Don’t forget that four Iowa State football players, along with an Oklahoma State player, have been charged with alleged illegal sports betting activity. Both schools will remain members of the league for the foreseeable future, despite the NCAA’s extended conference realignment this summer.

Another well-noted incident came via Alabama baseball, as now-former head baseball coach Brad Bohannon was fired in the wake of the investigation.

“At the end of the day, ProhiBet might be the most important regulatory or compliance product that’s been launched — ever since PASPA was repealed in 2018,” Holt said. ” … I think it’s easy to overlook the educational component to all of this (as well). There has been a commitment from many of the collegiate conferences, and they’re really understanding now that they really didn’t know everything that they probably should know — in terms of the geolocation capabilities and how carefully people were tracked when they logged into a sports betting app.

“A significant number of these (previous) instances have been athletes betting on other sports. Not trying to manipulate games. Not trying to fix anything, but simply betting on things that they may or may not have realized that they were prohibited from doing so.”

Nevertheless, Holt addressed that there were also occurrences that juxtapose the latter notion. During the 2020 college football season, there was an abundance of players that missed time because of COVID-19. Before this news became public, a select number of trainers leaked the information in exchange for a profit, according to Holt.

Related: NCAA Alters Student-Athlete Eligibility Rules For College Betting Infractions

Potential Sports Betting Impact

Some states with legalized sports wagering, including Illinois and Virginia, prohibit sportsbooks from offering local collegiate teams via online wagering — if not entirely. Here is the complete list of which states have restrictions on college sports betting.

Considering the vital role that Holt believes ProhiBet will serve across college athletics, state regulations could shrink down the road for fans in states hoping to be able to bet on college sports but currently can not.

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Click on any of the following Big 12 odds to place a wager on the best sports betting sites. As of this writing, Will Howard’s Kansas State Wildcats possess the second-shortest price () behind Texas. You can browse more college football odds on TheLines.com, too.

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