University of North Carolina junior tight end John Copenhaver gets a group text message from his university pointing out the latest betting scandal or reminding him of the importance of not violating rules against betting on sports.
“It’s being put in our heads every single day,” he says.
Schools feel they have no choice. The spread of legalized sports gambling—and some early scandals—has captured the full attention of athletic departments and conference offices. All major conferences are paying independent betting monitors to make sure their athletes abide by the rules—and to catch those who are not.
All of this means the personal information surrendered by athletes, such as their birthdays, addresses, Social Security numbers and cellphone numbers, can be used to tip off a betting monitor that something doesn’t look right.
“They’re just onboarding and they’re going through the documents just like any other student, though in this case a student-athlete will have a higher obligation,” Creighton sports law professor David Weber says. He says athletes who provide personal information would have a difficult time saying they didn’t realize what they were signing.
The desire by universities to keep a close eye on the betting market was driven home over the past several months because of scandals at Alabama, Iowa and Iowa State.
