Author Topic: ESPN: How a former NBA ref fixed games  (Read 1192 times)

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ESPN: How a former NBA ref fixed games
« on: February 20, 2019, 12:55:19 AM »

Offline CelticsElite

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http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/25980368/how-former-ref-tim-donaghy-conspired-fix-nba-games


Fixed game statistics:
http://www.espn.com/nba/matchup?gameId=261213020


The Celtics played the 76ers the night after the Marriott meeting. Donaghy worked the game. In the car at the gas station, according to Gaming the Game, Donaghy had said: Bet the Celtics. It was his first pick for Battista. The Celtics, favored by 2.5 points, went on to win in a blowout. One source with knowledge of the conspiracy says that Battista moved as much as $500,000 in wagers on this game: "We had a big bet on that. We had a big bet on every f---ing game."

Making bets at the highest levels of sports gambling is akin to the trading of any financial instrument. There's a defined trading session. It opens in the morning and closes right before tip-off. It's possible, in effect, to buy and sell bets, to go long or go short, to hedge. The best movers spend years compiling vast networks of clients and "outs," or counterparties, with whom the movers can trade. Battista had such a network.

It's possible, through Don Best Sports, a betting information service, to pull the line-movement data for individual NBA games going back years. It's like looking at a stock chart. The data chronicle price fluctuations. If the spread widens during the trading session, then you know that demand among gamblers for betting on the favorite has intensified.

And indeed, the chart for the Boston-Philly game on Dec. 13, 2006, shows the price for Boston spiking and then shrinking back. Huge bets on Boston in the middle of the trading session, between 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., drove the spread from 2.5 to 3 to 4. In the NBA markets, betting experts say, any move of 1.5 points or more is considered unusually severe -- the result of millions of dollars pouring in.

The night after the Boston victory, according to all parties, the conspirators met once more, at Martino's house in the Philly suburb of Boothwyn. Battista arrived with a thick stack of $100 bills bound in a rubber band -- $2,000 for the agreed-upon fee and $3,000 as a sweetener. From here on out, Battista said, he and Donaghy would never communicate directly. Instead, Martino would be in the middle. They would use, per Martino's statement to the FBI, a code. Martino had two brothers. One, Johnny, lived in Jersey. The other, Chuck, lived in Delco. According to Martino, if Donaghy mentioned out-of-state Johnny's name, the pick was for the visiting team. If Donaghy talked about Chuck, bet the home side. Not exactly the Enigma cipher but better than yapping about specific teams and risking someone overhearing.


"If you looked at the stats," said one gambler in The Office at the time, "you could see he was calling more fouls on the team he bet against and less fouls on the team he bet on. That was obvious." David Sherman/NBAE/Getty Images
Ideally, Donaghy should make his pick as early as possible, preferably the night before his games, or at least the morning of. That way, Battista could begin to prepare the markets, to manipulate the prices in their favor. He would start before dawn with the enormously liquid Asian betting markets, an amorphous group of black- and gray-market internet sportsbooks based in places like Manila and Kuala Lumpur. Normally this meant making a few "head fake" bets. If you think the Celtics are the side that's likely to cover, then you go to market as early in the trading session as possible and put some money on Philly. Do it right and you can drive down the price of Boston. Then later in the day, with the price right, you gobble up all the Boston you can. According to Martino and Battista, after such wagering was complete, Battista, via Martino, would then inform Donaghy of the spread he needed to cover. And so it began ...

From Philadelphia, Donaghy hopping to a Nets home game, then 1,700 miles west to Denver, then over to Seattle, then transcontinental to Atlanta, then southwest to Houston, then back east to DC -- Donaghy zigzagging across the country, in and out of NBA arenas, making his picks to Martino over those cheap bodega burner phones, but not always, because sometimes they'd forget and use their own regular phones, because who cared? -- wins and wins and wins and wins, his picks almost 100 percent wins. "How's Chuck doing?" "Say hello to Johnny for me ..."

Money drops and cash settlements in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania; in New York City; in Las Vegas; in San Francisco. Hundred-dollar bills in $10,000 packs, bound in rubber bands and delivered by trusted gofers. Battista hiking Donaghy's fee to $5,000 for each correct pick -- minuscule compared to the amounts Battista was now wagering ... Battista bowing his head to his desk and snorting a line of coke to stay alert, to stay awake. Martino late at night on the phone with Donaghy, the pair having developed a nightly before-bed ritual: If Donaghy's pick was a winner, if the spread had been covered, Martino calling the ref and whispering "Good boy," and Donaghy echoing "Good boy" and then hanging up ...

Donaghy calling two fouls 50 seconds apart against the 76ers' leading scorer, Andre Iguodala, in the third quarter against Boston, with the score's margin right on the spread. Iguodala heading to the bench; Boston covering the spread .

Re: ESPN: How a former NBA ref fixed games
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2019, 01:21:06 AM »

Offline SparzWizard

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Don't forget the infamous 2002 WCF Lakers vs Kings.

That was rigged in favor of Lakers, thus their 3peat and that banner should have been invalid.


#JTJB (Just Trade Jaylen Brown)
#JFJM (Just Fire Joe Mazzulla)

Re: ESPN: How a former NBA ref fixed games
« Reply #2 on: February 20, 2019, 10:17:39 AM »

Offline timpiker

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And David Stern covered it up.  I have absolutely no faith that sports is NOT fixed.  I guess I never should have.

Re: ESPN: How a former NBA ref fixed games
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2019, 10:39:30 AM »

Offline gift

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And David Stern covered it up.  I have absolutely no faith that sports is NOT fixed.  I guess I never should have.

Lol, sounds like Stern intentionally ruined an FBI organized crime investigation by leaking the story. He knows where the bodies are buried, for sure.