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US charges 26 people for basketball match-fixing scheme

Jan 16, 2026, 7:18am EST
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A photo of one of the players indicted.
Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports via Reuters

US prosecutors charged 26 people for allegedly participating in an international basketball match-fixing scheme, the latest in a number of such scandals since the country legalized sports betting.

More than a dozen US college basketball players are accused of taking part in the fraud, which also involved gambling on China’s professional basketball league. The case represented a ā€œsignificant corruption of the integrity of sports,ā€ a US attorney said.

Concerns about match fixing have grown since the US Supreme Court struck down a federal ban on sports betting in 2018: An NBC News poll last year showed that 70% of respondents feared sports gambling ā€œlessens the integrity of the game,ā€ with many fearing that betting could lead to match rigging.

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