Jalen Smith, a fixer with a leadership role in a college basketball point-shaving scheme, has been sentenced to 72 months in federal prison. The court also ordered three years of supervised release, approximately $1.1m in restitution and $75,000 in forfeiture.
Smith pleaded guilty in March to bribery in sporting contests, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and possession of a firearm by a felon. The firearm charge arose from a 2025 search of his Charlotte residence, where investigators recovered a loaded pistol. His six-year sentence therefore covers both the betting scheme and the separate weapons offense.
Point shaving involves deliberately underperforming so that a team fails to cover a betting spread. A team can still win a game while missing that spread.
Federal prosecutors said Smith and other fixers recruited college players to influence the margins of NCAA Division I men's basketball games, then arranged large wagers against their teams through sportsbooks.
The overall operation began with games in the Chinese Basketball Association in 2022 before shifting toward US college basketball. Smith helped recruit, manage and pay players during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 NCAA seasons.
Prosecutors said the group generally approached athletes on underdog teams and offered $10,000 to $30,000 per game. It targeted players for whom those payments could match or exceed legitimate name, image and likeness earnings.
According to the Justice Department, the scheme involved more than 39 players across over 17 Division I teams and more than 29 games that were fixed or targeted for fixing. Over $3m in fraudulent wagers were placed, producing more than $1.1m in losses for sportsbooks nationwide.
The case sits amid wider integrity concerns in college sports. Responding to the federal indictments in January, the NCAA said it had opened sports betting investigations involving approximately 40 student-athletes from 20 schools over the preceding year. It said its monitoring program covered more than 22,000 contests and urged states to eliminate college player proposition bets, which it considers an integrity risk.
In January, federal prosecutors charged 20 people in the point-shaving investigation, bringing the alleged manipulation of college basketball games into a criminal case.
In one March 2024 game described by prosecutors, Smith sent a halftime message urging a recruited player to underperform after the score was tied
