Hello and welcome to your weekly FOIAball.
We’ve got a jam-packed newsletter this week, with never-before-seen reports from firms working with the NCAA to monitor betting.
FOIAball obtained integrity investigations into game lines and player props, as well as alerts sent to schools about staff and players’ use of sportsbooks.
Sticking with the Vegas theme, we also have some very high figures for official visits to UNLV.
And in this week’s FOIAball Food, a fall treat: butternut squash polenta.
So let’s dive right in, why don’t we?
Here's exactly how college teams track gambling concerns
Two weeks ago, SMU traveled to Clemson for a rematch of last year’s ACC Championship.
The game, despite its pedigree, lacked any outsized hype. Both teams, participants in last year’s College Football Playoff, stumbled to start the season.
Clemson came into the game at 3-3, its struggles well-publicized. SMU was 4-2, with losses to Baylor and TCU.
The Mustangs won, 35-24, in an upset. At least according to Vegas. At the start of Week Eight, sportsbooks favored the Tigers by 11.5 points.
But that’s not where the line stayed. By kickoff, the spread tightened tremendously, with Clemson favored by only 3.5.
It was a swing gambling monitors noticed.
Two days before kickoff, Clemson’s athletics department received a message from IC360’s Investigations Center.
IC360, formerly U.S. Integrity, is one of the country’s biggest gambling monitoring firms. It touts a "global compliance technology" that provides "unparalleled services that ensure integrity, transparency, and operational compliance."
Basically, it sucks up reams of data, trying to spot unusual betting patterns that could indicate insider information. It also offers monitoring services to track individuals’ use of barred gambling apps.
A client list on its website highlights every major college football conference, from the SEC and Big Ten down to the Mountain West and Conference USA.
By working directly with conferences, which are private entities, IC360’s contracts aren’t open to public records requests.
But some of the data and communications filter down to schools.
And FOIAball got that.
On Thursday, Oct. 16, Clemson officials received a “Notable Line Movement” notification from IC360 about the “SMU vs Clemson Spread and Total.”
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