Posted on: July 30, 2024, 05:04h.
Last updated on: July 30, 2024, 05:04h.
Bert Neff, an obscure Indiana youth baseball coach, has been sentenced to eight months in prison for his role in an insider betting scandal that ended the career of University of Alabama baseball coach Brad Bohannon.
In March, Neff pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice charges – specifically, destroying evidence, tampering with witnesses, and providing false statements to the FBI. This was in relation to a federal investigation into irregularities surrounding a Southeastern Conference game between Alabama and LSU played on April 28, 2023.
Alabama fired Bohannon in May following reports of suspicious betting activity around the game. He was later handed a de facto life ban from the NCAA after he was found to have leaked information to Neff about an injury to Alabama pitcher Luke Holman that ruled him out for the game.
This information would have been gold dust to a gambler betting on the game, which LSU ran out winning 8-6.
Bohannon had been Alabama’s coach since 2018, earning an annual salary of $500K. It’s not known why he shared the information or whether he expected to profit from Neff’s activities.
Cat Out of Bag
Were it not for Neff’s conspicuous ineptitude, the world may have never heard of the conspiracy. Shortly before the game began, Neff turned up at the sportsbook at Ohio’s Great American Ballpark, home to the Cincinnati Reds, and attempted to place $100K on LSU.
This aroused suspicion because there was very little betting traffic on the game. Moreover, the proposed bet was far greater than the sportsbook’s limit on NCAA games.
Incredibly, sensing that sportsbook staff were reluctant to take the bet, Neff attempted to persuade them by insisting that it was “for sure going to win,” adding that “if only you guys knew what I knew,” according to court documents.
Neff proceeded to show staff the messages from Bohannon about the injury to Holman.
“Holman is out for sure … lemme know when I can tell LSU … Hurry,” Bohannon had written, according to the filings.
‘Gamed the System’
Neff placed an additional bet on the game with a competing sportsbook and shared the information with at least four other gamblers, according to federal court documents.
Bert Eugene Neff is a professional gambler,” said assistant US attorney Edward Canter in court documents. “Faced with a federal grand jury investigation, he worked to game the system.
“The defendant destroyed evidence, tampered with witnesses, and provided false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” Canter added. “He did not do this once. He did it on dozens of occasions, and he did so for the greater part of a year.”
