The Texas athletic department has self-reported five NCAA violations in relation to sports betting that took place between July 11 and Nov. 4, 2024, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
The American-Statesman obtained documents that censored the names of the involved parties. Texas’ self-reporting submissions listed two football players, a non-student athlete that had ties to the women’s tennis team, a student assistant, and an uncategorized athletic department employee.
The five people totaled $14,885.76 in their impermissible bets as a group. The wagers were placed with the daily fantasy sports website PrizePicks, where bettors can wager on a player’s statistics. Traditional sportsbooks are illegal, but PrizePicks is legal within the confines of Texas.
Per NCAA rules, players, coaches and staff members are prohibited from wagering on any sport in which the NCAA sponsors a championship.
According to the American-Statesman, the NCAA has stated an estimated 50 sports betting violations were reported in 2023 and 100 violations in 2024.
In each of the five cases at Texas, the school utilized a service called ProhiBet, which works alongside colleges and universities to monitor sports betting activity. The service cross-checks a person’s personal data — such as their name and birthday — against the data that individuals use to sign up for online sportsbooks and daily fantasy websites.
Since the start of the 2023-24 season, the SEC has put a mandate in place requiring schools to use the ProhiBet technology.
Once ProhiBet discovered the impermissible wagers, the Texas athletic department discovered the non-student athlete placed bets on Texas sporting events. The assistant’s role with the athletic department ended at that time. Meanwhile, the two non-student athletes were given warnings.
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One of the Longhorn football players was deemed ineligible, but was ultimately reinstated. That particular player was required to pay back the value of the wagers to a charity of his choosing.
Meanwhile, the other football player reportedly had a “problem” with sports betting, according to the documents that the American-Statesman received. He had placed an estimated $9,600 in impermissible wagers while attending school at Texas. In addition, two of his bets were placed on Texas basketball teams.
That player ended up leaving Texas and stopped his college football career, so the Texas athletic department didn’t penalize him.
