Sports betting watchdog Integrity Compliance 360 (IC360) flagged suspicious betting activity around a second Eastern Michigan basketball game in the space of a month.
ESPN’s David Purdum reports that multiple sportsbooks reported alarming wagering on last week’s NCAA basketball game between Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan.
IC360 sent an alert to its clients which noted that a bettor had tried to place “their largest wager to date” on Central Michigan to cover the spread in the first half.
In that game, the first-half point spread opened at Central Michigan -3.5 but moved as drastically as to -6.5 in the hour before the game began. Central Michigan went into half-time six points ahead at 39-33 after hitting a three-pointer in the final seconds.
Per Purdum, the sportsbook in question investigated and found to other high-stakes bets on the same spread wager from two accounts in a different jurisdiction. The betting activity happened in Connecticut and Tennessee.
IC360 also sent an alert regarding suspicious betting activity on a Wright State vs. Eastern Michigan game on Dec. 21. In both instances, the suspicious betting was laid against Eastern Michigan.
That university has launched its own review.
Gambling in college sports continues under spotlight
The latest instance reported by Purdum continues a pattern of 2024 into the first month of 2025.
Last year, several college teams and NCAA athletes came under scrutiny for suspect betting behavior, at a time when integrity in sports was top of mind due to pro sports cases such as Jontay Porter’s lifetime NBA ban and subsequent criminal charges.
The highest-profile college example last year was Temple University men’s basketball. In March 2024, U.S. Integrity, which later merged with Odds On Compliance to become IC360, was alerted to irregular line movement and suspicious betting patterns on Temple’s game against the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
In November, federal authorities began an investigation of former Temple player Hysier Miller regarding the suspicious betting.
Purdum reported that the alert related to the December Wright State-Eastern Michigan game suggested that “there is belief of a potential tie between these bettors and bettors who placed suspicious wagers on first-half markets in flagged games last season.”
In that game, the suspicious betting was on the Wright State first-half spread of -2.5. Wright State were 11 points ahead at half-time of the contest, but Eastern Michigan ultimately won the game 86-82.
