{"id":98984,"date":"2019-02-22T04:42:59","date_gmt":"2019-02-22T12:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=98984"},"modified":"2019-02-22T04:45:34","modified_gmt":"2019-02-22T12:45:34","slug":"compromised-nba-ref-tim-donaghy-disses-regulated-sports-betting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/compromised-nba-ref-tim-donaghy-disses-regulated-sports-betting\/","title":{"rendered":"Compromised Former NBA Ref Tim Donaghy Disses Regulated Sports Betting as He Denies ESPN Match-fixing Allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disgraced former NBA<\/a> referee Tim Donaghy<\/a> is no fan of regulated sports betting in the US.<\/p>\n

\"Tim
Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy has repeated denials that he fixed NBA games, despite new evidence which ESPN claims suggests the opposite is true. (Image: Complex)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Donaghy broke his silence this week to denounce a 10,000-word ESPN<\/em> article that details a wealth of circumstantial evidence which the sports media giant believes suggests he fixed basketball games in the 2000s for the benefit himself and other gamblers. But Donaghy also told John Canzano\u2019s Bald Faced Truth<\/em> podcast that the Supreme Court\u2019s decision to reject the federal ban on sports betting would \u201cbreed problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re close to another major scandal. But I think it\u2019s going to be most likely at the college level with one of those kids who may not have economic worth and have family needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donaghy spent 11 months in a federal prison after a 2007 FBI investigation found that he regularly bet on games that he officiated on the black market. He was never convicted of match-fixing — and has always denied the allegation, despite widespread suspicion.<\/p>\n

Data Points to Corruption<\/strong><\/h2>\n

ESPN\u2019s<\/em> report, published Tuesday, took over two years to compile and is based on interviews with over 100 people, including NBA staff, FBI agents, gamblers, black market bookies, and Donaghy\u2019s friends, family, and ex-wife.<\/p>\n

\n

Reporters pored over thousands of court documents and investigative records, and watched hundreds of hours of 40 NBA games Donaghy reffed, logging every foul call and analyzing the resulting data, while comparing it with betting-market line-movement records for those games.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

They found that during that 40-game span Donaghy\u2019s foul calls favored the team that received the heavier betting 70 percent of the time. On the occasions that it didn\u2019t, one team was beating the other so heavily that the spread was rarely in doubt — which would mean intervention by a corrupt referee would be unnecessary.<\/p>\n

ESPN<\/em> also spoke to several people who claimed Donaghy had admitted privately to them that he was subtly manipulating games. The article alleges many other gamblers had either been told about the fix or spotted the patterns and had enriched themselves, some possibly by hundreds of millions of dollars.<\/p>\n

\u2018Smelled Like a Hit Job\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The NBA concluded no match-fixing had taken place because it was in its interest to do so, ESPN claims, while noting the FBI wasn\u2019t so sure. Donaghy ultimately accepted a plea deal that did not include match-fixing charges.<\/p>\n

Donaghy told Canzano that he turned down the chance to participate in the ESPN piece because \u201cit smelled like a hit job from the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

He reiterated his claim that he used insider information to gamble but he did not manipulate results of matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made a terrible mistake,\u201d he said. \u201cI did something I shouldn\u2019t have done. I feel like I\u2019ve paid the price for it. I lost my job. I paid restitution back to the NBA. I feel like we all make mistakes in life. Maybe mine was a little more public than others.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Disgraced former NBA referee Tim Donaghy is no fan of regulated sports betting in the US. Donaghy broke his silence this week to denounce a 10,000-word ESPN article that details a wealth of circumstantial evidence which the sports media giant believes suggests he fixed basketball games in the 2000s for the benefit himself and other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":98987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,16,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCompromised NBA Ref Tim Donaghy Disses Regulated Sports Betting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy has broken his silence on an ESPN article that provided a wealth of circumstantial evidence that points to match-fixing.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/compromised-nba-ref-tim-donaghy-disses-regulated-sports-betting\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Compromised NBA Ref Tim Donaghy Disses Regulated Sports Betting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy has broken his silence on an ESPN article that provided a wealth of circumstantial evidence that points to match-fixing.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/compromised-nba-ref-tim-donaghy-disses-regulated-sports-betting\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-02-22T12:42:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-02-22T12:45:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/donaghy.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"776\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/compromised-nba-ref-tim-donaghy-disses-regulated-sports-betting\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/compromised-nba-ref-tim-donaghy-disses-regulated-sports-betting\/\",\"name\":\"Compromised NBA Ref Tim Donaghy Disses Regulated Sports Betting\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/compromised-nba-ref-tim-donaghy-disses-regulated-sports-betting\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/compromised-nba-ref-tim-donaghy-disses-regulated-sports-betting\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/donaghy.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-02-22T12:42:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-02-22T12:45:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy has broken his silence on an ESPN article that provided a wealth of circumstantial evidence that points to match-fixing.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/compromised-nba-ref-tim-donaghy-disses-regulated-sports-betting\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/compromised-nba-ref-tim-donaghy-disses-regulated-sports-betting\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/compromised-nba-ref-tim-donaghy-disses-regulated-sports-betting\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/donaghy.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/donaghy.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":776,\"caption\":\"Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy has repeated denials that he fixed NBA games, despite new evidence which ESPN claims suggests the opposite is true. (Image: Complex)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/compromised-nba-ref-tim-donaghy-disses-regulated-sports-betting\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sports Betting\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Sports\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/sports\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Compromised Former NBA Ref Tim Donaghy Disses Regulated Sports Betting as He Denies ESPN Match-fixing Allegations\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Compromised NBA Ref Tim Donaghy Disses Regulated Sports Betting","description":"Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy has broken his silence on an ESPN article that provided a wealth of circumstantial evidence that points to match-fixing.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/compromised-nba-ref-tim-donaghy-disses-regulated-sports-betting\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Compromised NBA Ref Tim Donaghy Disses Regulated Sports Betting","og_description":"Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy has broken his silence on an ESPN article that provided a wealth of circumstantial evidence that points to match-fixing.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/compromised-nba-ref-tim-donaghy-disses-regulated-sports-betting\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2019-02-22T12:42:59+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-02-22T12:45:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":776,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/donaghy.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/compromised-nba-ref-tim-donaghy-disses-regulated-sports-betting\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/compromised-nba-ref-tim-donaghy-disses-regulated-sports-betting\/","name":"Compromised NBA Ref Tim Donaghy Disses Regulated Sports Betting","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/compromised-nba-ref-tim-donaghy-disses-regulated-sports-betting\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/compromised-nba-ref-tim-donaghy-disses-regulated-sports-betting\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/donaghy.jpg","datePublished":"2019-02-22T12:42:59+00:00","dateModified":"2019-02-22T12:45:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy has broken his silence on an ESPN article that provided a wealth of circumstantial evidence that points to match-fixing.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/compromised-nba-ref-tim-donaghy-disses-regulated-sports-betting\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/compromised-nba-ref-tim-donaghy-disses-regulated-sports-betting\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/compromised-nba-ref-tim-donaghy-disses-regulated-sports-betting\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/donaghy.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/donaghy.jpg","width":1200,"height":776,"caption":"Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy has repeated denials that he fixed NBA games, despite new evidence which ESPN claims suggests the opposite is true. (Image: Complex)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/compromised-nba-ref-tim-donaghy-disses-regulated-sports-betting\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sports Betting","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Sports","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/sports\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Compromised Former NBA Ref Tim Donaghy Disses Regulated Sports Betting as He Denies ESPN Match-fixing Allegations"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98984"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}