The Texas athletics department self-reported five NCAA violations related to impermissible sports wagering between July 11 and Nov. 4 of 2024, according to documents obtained by the American-Statesman.
The documents, acquired via a public records request, redacted the names of the offending parties. Texas’ self-reporting entries listed two football players, a non-student-athlete associated with the women’s tennis program, a student assistant and an uncategorized athletic department employee as the violators.
Collectively, the five individuals totaled $14,885.76 in impermissible wagers. The wagers were placed with PrizePicks, a “daily fantasy” sports website where users can wager money on athletes’ statistical performances. Traditional sports betting remains illegal in Texas, but daily fantasy sites like PrizePicks are legal.
The NCAA prohibits daily fantasy sports wagering under bylaw 10.3, which disallows players, coaches and staff from wagering on any sport in which the NCAA sponsors a championship, including the professional iterations of those sports.
It is becoming more common for institutions to report wagering violations. The NCAA told the Statesman that it estimated about 50 violations were reported in 2023. That number roughly doubled to about 100 violations in 2024.
That’s, in part, because the transgressions are easier than ever to catch.
In each case, Texas learned of the impermissible wagering from a service called ProhiBet, which works with institutions to monitor and prevent betting activity. It does so by cross-checking an individual’s personal data — like their name, birthdate, cell phone number and email address — against the data used to register with online sportsbooks and daily fantasy sites.
Since the 2023-24 academic year, the SEC has mandated that each of its member institutions implement ProhiBet technology, according to UT. Scott Sadin, COO for IC360, which owns ProhiBet, said the company works with over 100 collegiate sports properties in total, but declined to share specifics.
“The administrator on the collegiate property side, in this circumstance, gets access to the information of the compliance professional at the sportsbook platform,” Sadin told the Statesman. “So, they’ll get an email of the person to then contact on the (sportsbook) platform side, and the person on the platform side gets the same information.”
From there, the university and sportsbook can work together to determine if impermissible wagering has indeed taken place.
After the alarm was raised by ProhiBet, the Texas athletic department determined that one of the offending non-student-athletes — the student assistant — had placed wagers on Longhorns sporting events. The assistant’s role with the department was terminated.
For the other two non-student-athletes caught wagering, Texas issued warnings and administered additional sports betting education.
One of the football players was declared ineligible for competition, but Texas confirmed he was later reinstated. He was required to repay the value of his wagering winnings to the charity of his choice.
The other football player described a previous “problem” with sports wagering, according to the documents, and sought help from his parents to quit. He placed about $9,600 in impermissible wagers while at Texas. Of his 67 wagers, two were placed on Texas’ basketball teams.
The athletic department did not impose a penalty against him because he left Texas and stopped playing college football, but it did respond by administering additional sports wagering education to the football team from the compliance staff and coach Steve Sarkisian.
Lori Hammond, Texas senior associate athletic director for Risk Management and Compliance Services, called sports wagering a “nationally significant” problem. Technology like ProhiBet makes it easier to monitor
“The implementation of monitoring technology has been instrumental in helping us identify and prevent the behaviors,” Hammond told the Statesman. “Prior to its implementation we solely relied on educational efforts as there was no means to monitor. Now the information we gain from monitoring has expanded our knowledge and significantly enhanced our educational content and also broadened the populations we educate.”
In a summary of the athletic department’s sports wagering education efforts provided to the Statesman, Texas said its compliance staff administers a presentation when onboarding new staff and also holds a similar meeting with student-athletes and coaches. Texas requires all full- and part-time hires to fill out a wagering information form and covers wagering at the athletic department’s all-staff meetings.
Sadin said he considered the violations at Texas to be an example of why regulating sports betting works.
“It’s likely that these kids had access to whatever they wanted for a long period of time, and so the fact that there’s now some control and some ability to investigate and ability to collaborate and educate, I think, is an important thing,” he said.
Reach Texas Insider David Eckert via email at deckert@gannett.com. Follow the American-Statesman on Facebook and X for more. Your subscription makes work like this possible. Get access to all of our best content with this tremendous offer.
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