Point shaving is the act of fixing games where those in on the fix try to change the final score of the game. This can be an effort to intentionally win or lose a game outright or win or lose against the point spread and influence the outcome.
There are multiple reasons why crooked players, coaches, or officials take part in point shaving, however, all of the reasons pertain to making sure that their bets on the game hit.
The first reason why someone would shave points is to make sure the spread works out in their favor.
The spread is a point value that sports books predict will be the margin of victory.
The second major reason is to manipulate the over-under. The over-under is the number of total points in a game that a sports book predicts.
Contents
History of Point Shaving in Sports Leagues
Here is a breakdown of some of the most notable point-shaving scandals in sports history:
Arizona State Basketball
In 1994 the Arizona State basketball team was caught shaving points in four games. The players who were involved in shaving points thought that the fix would only be for one game and would give them the money they needed to get by during college. However, some players quickly blew through the money and determined that they were not done.
The stakes kept getting higher and higher, and eventually, the casinos and authorities caught on.
Potential NBA careers were cut short before they even got the chance to begin and arrests were also made.
Toledo Football
In 2005, the Toledo football team was caught for point-shaving. Those that were in on the fix believed that with Toledo being such a small team, many thought they would be able to cover the point sperad without anyone noticing. However, when sportsbooks found major amounts of money being bet on Toledo, they knew something fishy was going on.
The president of Toledo was caught completely off guard when FBI agents entered his office to tell them about their suspensions and present him with the evidence that they had.
Tulane Basketball
The Tulane basketball point-shaving scandal took place in 1985. This would leave a stain on the basketball program that they are still attempting to bounce back from. The school’s star player at the time John “Hot Rod” Williams along with seven others was indicted and taken to jail for their involvement in the fix.
It was alleged that a player purchasing cocaine on the team led to the point-shaving scheme coming to fruition. Despite his involvement in the scheme, Williams was still able to make it to the NBA and have a successful 13-year career and he was also named to the 1986-1987 NBA All-Rookie Team.
UNLV Basketball
Although the UNLV basketball program was never found guilty of shaving points, there was a lot of talk that they may be in on it when three key players were photographed with notorious point shaver Ritchie “The Fixer” Perry.
Perry was found guilty of fixing games in 1973 and 1984. He was almost banned from all casinos as a result of his actions of manipulating the point spread.
Despite the UNLV players being seen and photographed hanging out with “The Fixer”, the NCAA and FBI could not find any evidence that UNLV was involved in any of Perry’s schemes.
Hypothetical Ways Point Shaving Can Occur in Football
Let’s take a look at hypothetical ways shaving points can occur in football:
Conservative Play Calling-(coach driven)
The first hypothetical way that point shaving can occur in football is by play calling. If the coach is in on the fix, they can either call an aggressive game to try to run up the score to hit the over or to cover the spread.
Alternatively, they can call the game conservatively if they are trying to keep the game close or hit the under-point spread on the final score.
Running out of bounds
The second way that point-shaving could hypothetically happen in football is if players run out of bounds rather than scoring touchdowns.
While this method has become more common in the NFL, it happens to not allow the opposing team to get the ball back at the end of a close game.
However, this strategy could also be used for shadier reasons. If players are point-shaving against their team, they can run out of bounds rather than cutting up the field and putting their team in a better position to score.
Turnovers
Another method that players have used to shave points is to turn the ball over. This is an easy way to shave points without being noticed.
Turnovers are commonplace in football, and we have seen players unintentionally throw multiple interceptions by making bad passes or fumbling the ball multiple times in the same football game.
Refs
The final major way that points could hypothetically be shaved would be poor officiating. After almost any game, you can find a fan that blames the officials for a loss, however, this actually could be a way that point-shaving occurs.
While there have not been any recent cases of this happening in the NFL, the NBA had an enormous scandal in which an NBA referee was caught rigging games so certain point spread bets would hit.
Why can’t NFL players gamble?
While NFL football players can gamble on other sports, they are not allowed to gamble on an NFL game even if their team is not involved.
This rule is put in place so a group of players cannot collude to fix games across the league and reap millions of dollars in rewards.
Even though the athletes are already multimillionaires, if there is an opportunity to make more money, someone will take it.
To circumvent this issue, there are rules in place that ban NFL players from gambling on NFL games.
Why is Point Shaving Illegal in the NFL?
Point shaving is banned from the NFL so players cannot rig games and in turn, ruin the integrity of the league.
The NFL has strict rules about players betting on the NFL as well as other sports. There have been several players suspended in the last couple of years for betting on games.
Most notable was Calvin Ridley, who got caught betting on NFL games and was suspended for an entire season.
What Football players have been caught gambling?
Prior to the last few years, there have only been a few players that have been busted gambling. Those players were Alex Karras in 1963, Paul Hornung in 1963, Art Schlichter in 1983, Josh Shaw in 2019, and Calvin Ridley in 2021. There have now been 9 additional NFL players that have been caught gambling in just the last 2 years.
Those players are:
- Isaiah Rodgers
- Rashod Berry
- Demetrius Taylor
- CJ Moore
- Quintez Cephus
- Shaka Toney
- Nicholas Petit-Frere
- Jameson Williams
- Stanley Berryhill
With so much to lose, you wonder why an NFL player would even get near to NFL sports gambling!
Summary
In conclusion, point shaving is the act of throwing games by manipulating the final score so a bet can hit.
There have been multiple cases of college players being caught trying to shaving points and there are multiple ways that teams, players, coaches, or even referees could shave points. NFL players cannot gamble on NFL games because it would taint the integrity of the league. We are starting to see more and more players that play professional sports get busted for gambling as it has become legal in many states.
As sports betting has become more mainstream, regulators are on the lookout for point-shaving and I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear more stories about point-shaving taking place in the coming years.
Recently, the Alabama baseball head coach was fired because he was caught relaying proprietary team information to a better who was placing large bets with that illegal knowledge. We will probably see similar stories