The University of Alabama has fired head baseball coach Brad Bohannon, the school announced Thursday. His dismissal comes following suspicious wagering activity on the team’s 8-6 loss to No. 1 LSU on April 28.
“Alabama director of athletics Greg Byrne announced he has initiated the termination process for head baseball coach Brad Bohannon for, among other things, violating the standards, duties, and responsibilities expected of university employees,” the university said in a statement. “Bohannon has been relieved of all duties and Jason Jackson will serve as the interim head coach. There will be no further comment at this time pending an ongoing review.”
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey shared a statement Thursday reacting to Bohannon’s firing.
“The University of Alabama has taken swift action after information about baseball sports wagering activity was questioned by industry regulators,” Sankey said. “Ensuring the integrity of athletic competition is our highest priority, and for that purpose the SEC monitors gambling activity through its relationship with U.S. Integrity and has done so since 2018. There must be zero tolerance for activity that puts into question the integrity of competition.”
Sankey says the SEC will remain in contact with Alabama during its ongoing review process, and the league doesn’t have any additional comment.
The suspicious wagering activity took place in the BetMGM Sportsbook at the Great American Ballpark, home of the Cincinnati Reds, according to NOLA.com. Early this week, the Ohio Casino Control Commission told sportsbooks in Ohio to stop accepting bets on Alabama baseball games until further notice. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has also instructed sportsbook operators in the state not to accept wagers on the team until further notice, the PGCB shared with Sports Handle on Thursday.
ESPN reported that surveillance footage from the casino indicated the bettor who placed the suspicious wagers was in contact with Bohannon, who scratched his starting pitcher before the game and replaced him with a reliever. LSU was a -245 moneyline favorite, and the top-ranked Tigers would have been favored with or without the pitching change. Most mobile sportsbooks in the U.S. only offer moneyline wagers on college baseball games, in addition to national championship futures.
ESPN also reported that New Jersey regulators also instructed sportsbooks in the state to not accept bets on Alabama baseball for the time being. That means operators in at least three states have stopped taking bets on Alabama baseball.
As of Wednesday evening, Louisiana was still allowing wagers on Alabama’s games.
“As of this time, we are still accepting bets on Alabama baseball, but we are monitoring the issue closely and should we deem it necessary, we would take similar action,” Ronnie Johns, the chairman of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board, told Sports Handle. “The important thing for us in Louisiana now is that LSU baseball is absolutely not implicated in the suspicious betting issue. That has been confirmed.”
Sportsbooks remove Alabama markets
While some states (Arizona, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Tennessee, among others) are still allowing bets on Alabama baseball, that doesn’t matter much if the legal sportsbooks available in the state aren’t taking wagers on the team.
FanDuel told Sports Handle on Monday that it was not going to allow wagers on games involving Alabama’s baseball team until further notice. The Crimson Tide, a projected NCAA Tournament team, aren’t available in the sportsbook’s futures market to win the College World Series.
The same is true at BetRivers, which had futures odds available on Wednesday. By Thursday morning, those odds were gone, and a company spokesperson confirmed to Sports Handle that Alabama baseball betting markets are currently unavailable. Barstool Sportsbook had Alabama futures odds available Wednesday evening, but they were removed by Thursday morning, and a company spokesperson confirmed the operator also isn’t offering odds on games involving Alabama until further notice.
So this Alabama baseball sports betting story just got a lot bigger with this news https://t.co/PSpMUaACuM
— Todd Fuhrman (@ToddFuhrman) May 4, 2023
Other major mobile operators also aren’t accepting wagers on the program, it appears. BetMGM, Caesars Sportsbook, and DraftKings are among the sportsbooks without odds on the program included in their respective futures markets. Requests for comment sent to those three operators went unreturned.
DraftKings has moneyline wagers available for a few Thursday games across the country, but Alabama’s home matchup with SEC foe Vanderbilt is not among those.
An NCAA spokesperson told Sports Handle that it is “monitoring the situation,” and that the association “takes sports wagering very seriously and is committed to the protection of student-athlete well-being and the integrity of competition.”
Interestingly, bet365 still has Alabama (+15000) included in its national championship futures market.
