As the NBA faces FBI probe for betting, pro baseball welcomes them to the club
The NBA betting investigation is at the top of the media agenda, but this is not the first time US sports has been swallowed by scandal.
As the world of NBA wades through legal challenges and an FBI investigation surrounding an alleged betting scandal, the MLB watches on with a knowing look in its eye.
Back in 1919, a storm erupted in the heart of the major-league game when the Chicago White Sox entered the 1919 World Series as heavy favourites only to see their side collapse, raising suspicions about the intentions of the American League champions.
Joseph “Sport” Sullivan, a Boston bookie, approached the team’s first baseman, Chick Gandil, with an idea: throw the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for a massive payout. Gandil agreed and recruited seven teammates willing to take part.
Never forget The Black Sox.#ChicagoHistory ☑️ pic.twitter.com/vaxcqEePly
— Chicago History ™️ (@Chicago_History) October 27, 2025
The Chicago ‘Black Sox’
The players from the White Sox were: the aforementioned Arnold “Chick” Gandil, Eddie Cicotte, Oscar “Happy” Felsch, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, Fred McMullin, Charles “Swede” Risberg, George “Buck” Weaver, and Claude “Lefty” Williams.
From the moment the series began, things looked strange. Cicotte hit the Reds’ first batter, supposedly as a prearranged signal that the fix was live.
The Sox then went on to make a number of uncharacteristic errors, struck out at critical moments, and dropped routine fly balls. Fans noticed, sportswriters whispered, and the odds in the betting markets swung wildly. The Reds, heavy underdogs, won the series in eight games.
A year later, the scandal finally broke. In September 1920, Chicago newspapers began publishing rumours that the 1919 Series had been rigged. Grand juries were convened, players were questioned, and soon eight White Sox were indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the public.
Yet when the trial rolled around in 1921, all were acquitted by a jury in under three hours.
The fallout to the the Black Sox scandal reshaped the sport. The notion that a World Series could be rigged sent shockwaves through the league and marked the beginning of a zero-tolerance approach to gambling and game-fixing.
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Fast forward to today, and the NBA now finds itself under federal investigation, with the FBI leading a coordinated takedown across 11 states, arresting more than 30 individuals, including NBA coaching staff and active players like Terry Rozier of the Miami Heat and Chauncey Billups of the Portland Trail Blazers.
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