Gaming the Game
Page 32
161 a divorcee . . . mother of two : Jana Winter and Dan Mangan, “Dirty Ref ’s ‘Sideline’ Gal Eyed By Feds,” New York Post , August 27, 2007.
Chapter Seventeen: Gambling Investigation Rocks NBA
195 The FBI is investigating : Murray Weiss, “NBA in a ‘Fix,’” New York Post , July 20, 2007.
196 I have been involved : ESPN.com , “David Stern’s Donaghy news conference transcript,” July 24, 2007.
Chapter Eighteen: The Dog Days of Summer
198 Here’s the first look : Mike Jaccarino and John Marzulli, “Ref ’s alleged bookie is in a foul mood,” NY Daily News , July 27, 2007.
201 Ruggieri noticed that Jack : John Shiffman, “Pro gambler says Donaghy was under suspicion for lengthy period,” Philadelphia Inquirer , July 31, 2007.
201 Pete Ruggieri thought he : Joseph Santoliquito and William Bender, “Lawyer says Ruggieri has no gambling connection to Donaghy,” Philadelphia Daily News , August 1, 2007.
201 Donaghy first partnered : Mike Jaccarino, “Ref Changes Bet Pals to Boost Loot, Gambler Sez,” Daily News (NY), July 31, 2007.
Chapter Nineteen: Former N.B.A. Referee Pleads Guilty
217 a lot of things : William Bender, “Donaghy’s associates indicted in betting case,” Philadelphia Daily News , February 9, 2008.
Chapter Twenty: What Characters
226 I taught him for : Mike Jaccarino, “Bad bounces along his way,” Daily News (NY), July 29, 2007.
227 Mail carrier Charles Brogan : Mike Jaccarino and Helen Kennedy, “He got his share of fouls both on and off the court,” Daily News (NY), July 21, 2007.
227 No way I’m going : Mike Jaccarino, John Marzulli, Jonathan Lemire, and Rich Schapiro, “Rogue ref may blow whistle,” Daily News (NY), July 22, 2007.
228 sued Donaghy for harassment : Associated Press, “Stern: bet probe ‘worst situation that i have ever experienced,” July 25, 2007.
The Philadelphia Inquirer article referenced which discusses the outcome of the Brogan (mail carrier) incident is Kathleen Brady Shea, “Referee out of bounds, neighbors’ suit says,” January 21, 2005.
228 In the summer of 2003 : Shea, “Referee out of bounds.”
228 We were terrorized : Jaccarino and Kennedy, “He got his share.”
229 He was so bad : William Bender, “Donaghy remembered locally as someone ‘out of control,’” Philadelphia Daily News , July 25, 2007.
229 as a consequence of : Stern’s Donaghy news conference.
230 knock my . . . head off : Bill Hutchinson, “Tim Donaghy avoids foul call by wife,” Daily News (NY), March 25, 2008.
232 Aside from former O’Hara : Anthony J. SanFilippo, “Donaghy’s downfall leaves many scars,” Delco Times , July 6, 2008.
Chapter Twenty-One: Team Donaghy’s Assault on Justice
240 Regarding the legal issue of the NBA’s loss, see, for example, United States of America, -against- Timothy Donaghy, Defendant, United States of America, -against- James Battista and Thomas Martino, Defendants , 07-CR-587 (CBA), 08-CR-86 (CBA), UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK, 570 F. Supp. 2d 411; 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56776, July 23, 2008 Decided, July 23, 2008 Filed; and UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT, United States of America v. James Battista , Docket No. 08-3750-cr, August 6, 2009.
243 The letter fi led today : Michael S. Schmidt and Howard Beck, “Assertions by Ex-Referee Are Dismissed by N.B.A.,” The New York Times , May 20, 2008.
243 An interesting, almost laughable : Bob Ford, “Donaghy’s lawyer is fishing—and it smells,” Philadelphia Inquirer , May 25, 2008.
244 If Donaghy cannot make : Lester Munson, “Donaghy’s claims serious, troubling for NBA,” ESPN.com , June 10, 2008.
244 received no information : Phil Jasner, “Coming to defense of NBA referees amid Donaghy allegations,” Philadelphia Daily News , June 12, 2008.
245 My reaction to Donaghy’s lawyer : Associated Press , “Donaghy says refs fi xed playoffs; Stern says no,” June 10, 2008.
245 According to Mr. Donaghy : Stephen A. Smith, “Dream season shaken by Donaghy nightmare,” ESPN.com , June 11, 2008.
245 conspiracy theorists jumped out : John Smallwood, “NBA Surviving Donaghy scandal,” Philadelphia Daily News , July 30, 2008.
247 A lot of it was : Joshua Robinson, “Prosecution plays down cooperation of Donaghy,” New York Times , July 10, 2008.
248 knew what he did : Andrew Alberg, “Assisting feds cut ex-ref ’s jail time,” USA Today , July 29, 2008.
250 If there were people : William Bender, “Do you believe disgraced ref Donaghy?” Philadelphia Daily News , December 10, 2009.
Chapter Twenty-Two: An Hour to a Little Kid Is a Long Time
253 This is a very serious : John Barr, “Battista sentenced to 15 months in prison; Martino gets one year,” ESPN.com , July 24, 2008.
255 Downstairs in the lobby : William Bender, “Battista, Martino verdicts could be ominous for disgraced NBA ref Donaghy,” Philadelphia Daily News , July 25, 2008.
257 The NBA, the players : Robin Shulman and Michael Lee, “Donaghy Sentenced to 15 Months in Prison,” Washington Post , July 30, 2008.
259 We were retained : National Basketball Association, “Larry Pedowitz Teleconference Transcript,” October 2, 2008.
260 We have discovered : Lawrence B. Pedowitz, “Report to the Board of Governors of the National Basketball Association,” October 1, 2008, pp. 39, 7.
260 Donaghy Report Clears : Michael Lee, “Donaghy Report Clears Other Refs,” Washington Post , October 3, 2008.
260 Probe: No evidence : Chris Colston, “Probe: No evidence of other referees’ misconduct,” USA Today , October 3, 2008.
260 Report confirms Donaghy : William Bender, “Report confirms Donaghy was the only corrupt referee, clears NBA,” Philadelphia Daily News , October 3, 2008.
260 Review of NBA : “Review of NBA officials finds Donaghy only culprit, calls for change,” ESPN.com , October 3, 2008.
260 NBA referees are : Marc J. Spears, “NBA referees are cleared; Report: Only Donaghy guilty,” Boston Globe , October 3, 2008.
260 Report: Donaghy fi xed : Ken Berger, “Report: Donaghy fixed games alone,” Newsday , October 3, 2008.
260 Despite our repeated : Pedowitz, “Report to the Board of Governors,” p. 7.
APPENDIX: ANALYSIS
Jimmy Battista says he does not possess betting records to support his various claims regarding his bets on Tim Donaghy’s games, and obtaining these records independent of Battista has been a difficult challenge for a host of reasons.3 When interviewed in the earliest stages of research for what became Gaming the Game , Battista’s betting on Donaghy’s games had taken place approximately 12 to 16 months prior.4 In part because of the gap in time, and especially because his bets on Donaghy’s games were such an insignificant part of his daily betting activity, Battista didn’t pretend to recall each and every bet, much less the betting line movement or the wins and losses, for each and every Donaghy game that was part of the scandal.5 As such, Battista was asked to offer his best recollections for the games he says made up the NBA betting scandal. Because I had just met Battista and because the issues of validity and credibility were going to be paramount in this project, I met with Battista twice for the express purpose of assessing his recollection of betting activity on Donaghy’s ’06-07 games.
During the first meeting, Battista was provided with a list of Donaghy’s games which included only the dates of the games, the teams, and the outcomes (no betting lines were referenced). Battista was not aware that as he sat across from me, I was looking at a different version of the list of Donaghy’s games— one with the open and closing betting lines. That particular interviewing experience remains a point of fascination with me because for those games Battista recalled, his recounting of betting line moves (often including the manner in which the line related to the outcome of a game) was uncanny. At a later point, after time had elapsed, after numerou
s other interview sessions of a range of topics had been conducted, and after much had transpired in the federal case against Battista (not to mention whatever was going on in his personal life), we revisited his memory of the betting activity for Donaghy’s 2006-07 season. This was done to further assess Battista’s credibility and reliability, and his recollections were virtually unchanged.6
282 major, major stumbling block : William Bender, “Donaghy reiterates he never threw games,” Philadelphia Daily News , December 11, 2009.
282 He’s one of the : Henry Abbott, “A Professional Gambler’s Take on the Tim Donaghy Scandal,” ESPN.com , June 11, 2008.
283 near or at top : ESPN.com , “David Stern’s Donaghy news conference.”
283 Tim Donaghy, Personal Foul: A First-Person Account of the Scandal that Rocked the NBA (Largo, FL: VTi Group, 2009), p. 238.
289 Regarding the belief among many NBA betting scandal observers that game totals were being bet as opposed to sides, see, for example, Justin Wolfers, “Blow the Whistle on Betting Scandals,” New York Times , July 27, 2007; and Wayne L. Winston, Mathletics: How Gamblers, Managers, and Sports Enthusiasts Use Mathematics in Baseball, Basketball, and Football (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009), pp. 244-247. Regarding the lower betting limits on game total bets compared to sides bets, see, for example, Jon Campbell, “More answers to questions about the Donaghy scandal,” Covers.com , July 26, 2007.
290 I could pick : CBS News , “60 Minutes” transcript for Sunday, December 6, 2009.
296 They never called : Matt Youmans, “Betting scandal cloud lingers,” Las Vegas Review-Journal , May 23, 2008.
Footnotes
Needless to say, numerous relatively trivial matters—especially those that occurred ten or more years ago—were all but impossible to support or refute (considering the passing of time and lack of objective data). For instance, Battista and some of his colleagues, led by Tiger, disagree (at times considerably) on a host of dated issues. Fortunately, these divergent views are of little or no historical or sociological import, and the lack of consensus does not adversely impact our holistic understanding of the gambling underworld.
This is assuming Tim Donaghy, who was alternately writing and promoting a book during the time Gaming the Game was being researched, would have been a willing and forthcoming interview subject in the first place. On a related note, Tommy Martino declined my request for an interview through a third party, apparently because he was in the process of selling his story to a book author.
I had originally intended to offer the results of an assessment of Battista’s computerized betting records, many of which I have found and reviewed. Locating Battista’s wagers—in numerous accounts among various sportsbooks—is ongoing as of March 2010, and the goal is to compile a full (or close to full) data set from which to draw conclusions. In advance of this analysis, I must note that the data reviewed to date supports Battista’s claims regarding the significant amounts of money placed on Donaghy’s games versus considerably less placed on non-Donaghy games.
It is important to note that Battista’s recollections regarding his bets on Donaghy’s games were offered before anyone knew Tim Donaghy’s detailed version of events. Thus, Battista didn’t know at the time that Donaghy was/would be claiming: he stopped betting on March 18, 2007; that he only bet on 30 games with Battista, of which only 16 were games he officiated; and that his winning percentage was the same regardless of whether the bets were on games he officiated.
As noted previously, Battista’s gambling activity during the time period spanning the scandal involved betting multiple games for several clients and partners, monitoring minute-by-minute line changes from around the world in real time, and thus betting multiple times for most games. Furthermore, he was placing his bets with dozens of outs (offshore/online, foreign markets, Vegas sportsbooks, and bookies throughout the U.S.). All of this was in addition to whatever NBA betting scandal-specific activities were taking place.
Simply because his statements were the same and thus in this specific context there was reliability, this is distinct from the issue of validity. Thus, if the information from the first interview was invalid, the fact that he merely later repeated this information would mean the data was reliable but not valid.
“All-Star Sports”1 —pseudonym for a now-defunct, Curacao-based offshore sportsbook in which the services of The Animals were enlisted.
“ARD” —“ARD” is short for Pennsylvania’s A ccelerated R ehabilitative D isposition, a one-time alternative to a trial, conviction, and possible jail sentence for first offenders.
“Balloon” —one million dollars (i.e., two balloons = $2,000,000).
Betting line —“the line;” also known as the point spread; the number of points one team is favored to win over its opponent; ideally, from the perspective of bookmakers and sportsbooks, the line generates equal action on each side of a proposition, resulting in the book’s profit on the juice/vig.
Bookmaker —also referred to as a “bookie;” someone who offers odds and accepts bets; the bookie’s operation is often referred to as his “book.”
CRIS —Costa Rica International Sports; influential offshore sportsbook.
“Crushing” —winning on betting propositions at a significantly profitable rate; not to be confused with getting crushed (losing money).
“Dime” —one thousand dollars (i.e., five dimes = $5,000).
Don Best —influential subscription Web site that offers real-time odds and line moves from sportsbooks around the world; the arrival of Don Best ended the need for bettors and their crews to phone bookmakers and sportsbooks for “rundowns.”
“Earner” —a bet or a sequence of bets that would likely result in financial gain. (Note: although Jimmy Battista uses the term “earner” in this fashion, other gamblers refer to these bets simply as “earns” and reserve the term “earner” for people who earn on their behalf).
“Firing” —betting rapidly, often with many outs being used simultaneously.
“First number” —the opening betting line offered by a sports-book or bookmaker.
“Get down” —place a bet.
“Get off a game” —place bets on the opposite side of bets placed earlier in the hopes of diminishing expected losses; commonly done when information is disclosed late (e.g., injuries) or when it is discovered the line was being manipulated.
Handicapper— someone who analyzes upcoming sporting events and calculates the point spread.
“Juice” —also referred to as the “vig;” generally speaking, bookmakers and sportsbooks charge a 10% fee or tax on losing bets; a bettor must put up $110 to win $100, and bettors must win at least 52.4% of their bets over time just to break even because of the juice.
“Manipulate the line” —also referred to as “controlling the numbers;” the strategic placing of bets (at certain times and places, and in certain amounts) to cause bookmakers and sportsbooks to adjust betting lines in reaction to the wagers, often resulting in a point spread more attractive to the bettor who “manipulated the lines.”
“The market” —the universe of sports betting action; pro gamblers follow the market (i.e., dozens if not hundreds of international sportsbook and bookmaker lines) looking for curiosities, weaknesses, potential earners, etc.
“Middle” —A “middle” occurs when a bettor wagers on both sides of a game at different point spreads with the intent of winning both bets (e.g., someone who bets on Penn State -4 and on Ohio State +7 wins both wagers if the final score is Penn State 27 Ohio State 21).
MLB —Major League Baseball.
“Move a game” —place bets strategically on a game.
“Mover” —one who moves games as a profession (Jimmy Battista was one of the world’s most influential movers).
NBA —National Basketball Association.
“Next number” —Sharps often refer to the “next number” as the betting line that follows the “right number;” the infer
ence is that the next number is always a weaker betting proposition than the so-called “right number” and that those who routinely take the “next number” will lose in the long run.
NFL —National Football League.
“Offshore” —Loosely defined term used to describe betting operations located in such locations as Santo Domingo, Curacao, Antigua, and elsewhere that rose in prominence in the mid- to late 1990s; offshore sportsbooks have proliferated in the Internet era and accommodate bettors online from around the world.
Offshore sportsbook agent —Provides various services to clients of offshore sports betting operations, including providing passcodes to betting sites and standing for the money of the bettor and the sportsbook; select agents are responsible for moving millions of dollars throughout the United States once or twice per week.
“Off the board” —A betting line that is either listed but not available for play at a sportsbook, or a game that has been removed from betting action.
“Out” —An “out” is a bookmaker or sportsbook with whom someone places a bet; one of the difficulties in wagering large sums of money is finding books to take bets, since most have tight restrictions on wager amounts, particularly if they know the bet is for a sharp bettor; the world’s sharpest bettors thus employ an army of movers and an array of tactics to exploit the largest number of outs as possible to “get down” the largest amount of money on their bets.
“Paramount Sports” —Pseudonym for the world’s largest and most consequential sportsbook; based in Curacao.