Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - University of Iowa Sports Gambling Investigation

Episode Date: May 9, 2023

Trent Condon with a breakdown of the details from the sports gambling investigation inside the University of Iowa.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Live from Stadium Swim today on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, we get into the latest of the investigation with the University of Iowa, the Athletic Department, and gambling. What we know, we'll get into it today, and we'll do it with somebody that has a background in the sports gambling world. Aaron Oster is going to stop in with us here today. Live from Circa and Stadium Swim, it's Locked On Hawkeyes. Our Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day.

Welcome in once again to the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. I'm Trent Condon, and thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Well, a little bit different look here today as we come to you from Stadium Swim, and I'm joined by Aaron Oster, who is part of the Circa team. So, Aaron, obviously the big story that we have been talking about is in the state of Iowa, both Iowa and Iowa State under investigation from the local DCI unit there for what appears to be underage gambling. Kind of a crazy story and it's so wild that it happens while me and my radio partner, Ken Miller, are out here that all this is going on while we're hanging out in Nevada and Vegas. I mean, some people might say it's because you're out here in Vegas that you get a gambling-related story going on in Iowa right now.

But, yeah, it's been a wild story, especially coming off the heels of that Alabama story last week. And then, you know, right before that, we had all those players for the Lions and the Commanders suspended as well. So more and more, we're seeing these gambling suspensions, gambling infractions happening in sports just constantly. So when something like this comes to the forefront, I think it's always interesting to get somebody in the business and their perspective of things. What an alert happens. We heard LSU Alabama a couple of weeks ago and how that goes on. For you guys at a place like Circle, when you see a suspicious bet, what is the process? What is involved there when something like that suspicious bet, what is the process?

What is involved there when something like that is happening from the bookmaker perspective? You know, there's a number of processes. And it's one of the reasons why everyone, when they hear this, or a lot of people who are living in the Stone Ages, they think, oh, this is a proof why gambling shouldn't be legalized. No, no, it's actually the exact opposite. The reason that these things are coming out, the reason that people are finding out about this is because it be legalized and all sorts of things. No, no, it's actually the exact opposite. The reason that these things are coming out, the reason that people are finding out about this is because it's legalized, because we have all of these systems in place. So what happens, for example, because these are obviously different things than last week.

So let's take last week, for instance. If something happened like that, there was unusual bets happening, something very suspicious, it gets reported up to the level. There's obviously the Nevada Gaming Commission. If we're here in Nevada, every state has a gaming commission. There's also overarching properties like U.S. Integrity, which is a company you heard a lot about last week, whose really their job is to look into things like that,

integrity is in their name. They look into unusual bets. They look into situations. They kind of figure out, okay, is this something weird going on or is it just, you know, some random guy making a bet? And they look into it. You know, last week's story went through a lot of different phases where it seemed at first, well, this might not actually not be a big deal. Oh no, someone was betting on the number one team in the country with the number one baseball, number one pitcher in the country. Okay, maybe not a big deal.

Then obviously as they began to investigate, they found out more details. Okay, that became a really big deal. This story here, obviously a very different situation in that there's no unusual bets in place. It's just a situation that we have to become aware of because of what can happen actually to the lines and to the teams themselves. And that's kind of the next step is paying attention, figuring out, well, where are the suspensions happening? Who it might be? How does that affect the lines? Right now here at Circus Sports, the only college football we

have up other than the Heisman is national championship odds. You know, we still have Iowa, Iowa State up because quite frankly, they weren't factoring in that much. We're not moving those lines very much. But I do know other properties had win totals up, had other, you know, you will say, I don't know if other properties have conference odds up. I'm sure those have been taken down by now as we wait out the information there. Yeah, it's, I saw a couple of places, yeah, took them down, and it makes sense because we don't know if there are suspensions, be it a couple of games or half a season, and that's what it turned out to be for a Virginia Tech football player that had this that came out a year ago I mean that's incredibly impactful and a different position group's obviously more important than others and we get into that it sounds like right

now everything that we're hearing is the main reason behind this is a crackdown on underage gambling is people under the age of 21 on college campuses having the ability to bet on sports and do it if you're a collegiate athlete, not happening. The NCAA though, mentioned that six game suspension for the Virginia Tech player. You bet a total of $400 on NBA. It's legal if you're 21. That's the part of this. The NCAA, it feels like it is, if something like this comes to fruition, as it appears that it's going to, maybe the NCAA needs to kind of as it appears that it's going to, maybe the NCAA needs to kind of reevaluate that for people 21. Can't bet on your own sport.

You're a football player. Can't even bet on other teams. Get all that. But you can bet on MLB. You can bet on other things. I think the NCAA needs to revisit it. I think it's very, very tricky. And it is something that needs to be revisited. But I don't know exactly what the answer is going to be. because we even see, look, this isn't just an NFL or an NCAA thing.

We're seeing in the NFL, those suspensions a few weeks ago, they weren't necessarily betting on NFL. They were just betting from the facility. And if you consider the college campus, the facility, which I think is a very reasonable way to read this for any player. I think it's hard to say what direction it should go. For me, as a guy who's been a sports gambler before I even joined Circa, obviously I want more sports gambling, but it is a very tricky thing, and it's a difficult path for the NCAA to navigate. Look, we know forever people have been doing March Madness pools, whether or not they're an athlete or whether they're not in the athletics.

We know that. So it's something that they do need to look at and figure out. I just don't know if the answer is necessarily, well, let everybody 21 up gamble on whatever they want. And I'm curious to see what direction they do go. It's going to be a very big story, though, and it's going to permeate in a lot of different things. What we do know, I'll write down.

No names have been named in this one, but we'll continue to pass it along hey appreciate you having us here as always at Circa and Stadium Swim really cool and doing the podcast from here hopefully yesterday I had an audio problem so hopefully everybody's able to hear this one but really appreciate your time for joining us here today yeah love having you out there and looking forward to any of you Iowa fans coming out here, whether it's during the season or any point. Yes, absolutely. World's biggest sportsbook. It is incredible.

And Stadium Swim, well, we're going to take a little video of that and send it to everybody out there. We'll come back with more here as we continue on. It is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast as we continue here in a moment. Today's episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Make a fast break to FanDuel during the NBA playoffs because right now, new customers, you can get a no-sweat first bet up to $1,000. Great promotions every day. They have you covered on that front and all on a safe and secure app. And Noel, as we've been talking about this, that is incredibly important going on right now. No better place to bet on all the playoff action than doing it on America's number one sportsbook.

You can visit Fanduel.com slash Locked On and get that no sweat first bet up to $1,000. Again, Fanduel.com slash Locked On. Fanduel, official sports betting partner of the NBA. Trent Cotter continuing on with you here on LockedOn Hawkeyes. Thanks for making LockedOn Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Mentioned hanging out here. Hopefully audio quality is okay. But just such a cool, cool environment that we have here at Stadium Swim.

If you haven't had the opportunity to come out here to Las Vegas, something that interests you. In fact, I'm going to flip the camera here. We're going to get everybody here on the YouTube side of things. Just get a view of that just right outside the cabana. How cool is that? And what an experience it is here. Well, we got a lot more to get into.

And obviously, for the audio listeners, you know, that wasn't exactly great for you. All right, here we are. We're back at it. And so we have this investigation happening. What we know at this time is that four Iowa baseball players did not play against Ohio State. Keaton Anthony, this stinks.

This was your most dynamic player. I was on the verge of making the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2017. And with that, and how difficult it is in the Big Ten and college baseball to compete at that level. We've seen Iowa compete. We saw what they did against LSU being the number one team in the country. We know that this team has the top end talent and a number one pitcher in Brody Brack. That if he's right, he's as good as anybody in the country. We know that this team has the top-end talent and a number one pitcher in Brody Brack, that if he's right, he's as good as anybody in the country. You have that. You have a dynamic offense led by Keaton Anthony.

You maybe could have a historic season. You could break through, at least in recent college sports and college baseball, in a place you haven't done, and you have this lingering. Not only that, two of the other players that weren't part of it are the two backup catchers. And C boss great young man from central iowa kate boss is a really good catcher but you have no depth behind him now and what happens if he gets beamed and he's got to sit out he gets injured or something even worse than that you don't have depth of that position

i mean you were really when you're going down to your number four catcher, that is a scary proposition, but that is a reality. That something now happens to Cade Moss. So we have all this happening at this point. And what could be a huge season for Iowa baseball? And what makes me really concerned is what is happening on this front is how quickly the NCAA is going to go out there and actually have an answer. The Department of Criminal Investigation in the state of Iowa, they don't care about the NCAA rules.

That is not what this is about. But the NCAA certainly cares about what DCI is doing right now. If you are found gambling underage, and again, that is what, at this point in time, it appears that all of this is, to the idiot on Twitter that threw out a former Hawkeye player's name and point shaving, you're a moron.

Don't do that because that's not true. That's not what this is. This is not a point shaving scandal. Knock it off with that crap. It's idiotic. This is not a point-shaving scandal. Knock it off with that crap. It's idiotic.

This is about underage gambling. So you look at the Iowa Code. And Iowa Code will tell you this. It's a misdemeanor. Simple misdemeanor for gambling on sports underage. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's what we are.

We're talking about right now a misdemeanor. Now, it's not that way in the NCAA's eyes, and that is the problem, that the NCAA does not look at it like a misdemeanor. They think that there is much more that happens on that front. We can disagree with it all we want, but that is their reality. The NCAA needs to evolve. They need to understand

that this is here to stay. We're not putting the genie back in the bottle. Sports wagering is going to be a part of the conversation and the lexicon and what we do here on the Lockdown Network and what happens in sports radio and what happens on your favorite TV shows. Wagering is a part of it.

This is where we are. This is now a huge part of the world of sports. And to not allow, of age, 21 years old, to not allow them, you're a basketball player, you can't bet on the NFL. I don't like that. And if you want to put a blanket out there, no college sports betting, four college athletes, fine.

But we have to evolve. We have to look at this in a much better light. It's also the NCAA. Are we confident that they're going to be able to do that? Probably not. Well, it's not all doom and gloom confident that they're going to be able to do that? Probably not. Well, it's not all doom and gloom here in the world of Hawkeye athletics, and I certainly don't see this story as doom and gloom either. We'll see when more details emerge,

and we'll get some names that are going to be associated with this outside of the four baseball players that sat out. We will definitely get a whole lot more there. Will the NCAA come around? Will they get it figured out? Let's hope that that is the case, but that is where we are right now. There is good news, though. Iowa picks up a commitment on the football field

and also a commitment for next year in the transfer portal. We've talked about plenty. What is the latest with Iowa recruiting? That's as we continue on Lockdown Hawkeyes. What is the latest with Iowa recruiting? That's as we continue on Lockdown Hawkeyes. Trey, kind of back with you one final time, live from Stadium Swim. Glad to have you aboard with us here on Lockdown Hawkeyes.

Every dayers, we got more coming up for you this week. One more day from Las Vegas before I got to depart back home. We'll get you more information on everything going on and the latest, obviously, on this story. Plus, we're going to start to break down football a little bit more. Lots of good things coming your way on the football side of things and a team that is absolutely loaded. They get Kayla Brown out of the transfer portal from Ohio State, an offense that has a chance to be incredibly talented.

Will it be good? We will talk about that and a whole lot more. Well, the news of the last couple of days, back to the commitment page, and let's start with basketball. So Iowa Hoops started this offseason knowing that they had to retool the roster. You had four incoming freshmen.

You lose a couple of really good starters. Guys, it did a lot for your team and your program. Chris Murray offool the roster. You had four incoming freshmen. You lose a couple of really good starters. Guys that did a lot for your team and your program. Chris Murray off to the NBA. Phillip Abracha and what he meant. You also lose Aaron Ulis to the transfer portal. So you have that going on. You knew this was going to be a new look team. Fran McCaffrey, give him credit.

He has been able to take teams that on the surface did not appear to be very good, and has turned them into a pretty good team year after year after year. Fran's done a good job. We can argue about March. I get it. Solid. Putting things together and putting teams together that on paper maybe didn't look that good. This is the worst of the bunch, though.

This is the worst of the bunch. Going out and getting cricky? All right, fine. Big guy, he'll help out, he can score. I'm sure he'll fit in well to Fran's system. Needed more. Weren't able to do it. Weren't able to get more.

And Evan Bronze, young man from Iowa City, not to disparage him in any way, but it looked like initially when his name was bandied about, he was going to be a walk-on. That's a dang good walk-on. I mean, you can bring in a guy that played at a high level in the Missouri Valley and you get him to walk on, that's a win. He's not walking on. He's going to be a scholarship player. It's a win for him, win for the family, obviously save some money, not a win for Iowa. Again, not to knock him at all. And he can very well come in and play very well. Wouldn't surprise me. I've always liked his game. He's springy. He can do some things. I

think he's definitely going to help. But the continued missing out on prospects in the portal as Fran swung and missed at a bunch of them. This is what you're left with. And Iowa still has one more scholarship look i just saw yesterday there were five more names that entered the transfer portal in basketball and yet here we are just throwing our hands up and saying we're good with this team it's not good enough fran you gotta keep working you gotta keep looking and i know they are it'd be silly to say that they're not even looking or making contact, but more than just a cursory glance. I mean, just really dive in there and really make that happen.

Football also picks up a commitment the other day as they improve their team in the offensive line going forward as they get another tackle from over in the state of Illinois. So Iowa football putting it together on that side. Portal has been really good. The class of 2023 looks incredibly good. And now three offense alignment, including the latest Will Nolan, who has given his commitment to the Iowa Hawkeyes. Had offers from Iowa State, Duke, Minnesota, Indiana, a bunch of solid programs out there, but another offense aligned commitment for

Iowa. And what does that mean for them? We'll talk about that certainly in the days ahead. Well, that will do it here for us today on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Hopefully the audio worked okay today. Coming to you remotely, things can be a little bit more difficult, but thanks for hanging with us here on Locked On Hawkeyes. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Go Hawks.