Tim Donaghy and the NBA game fixing scandal

NBA referee Tim Donaghy was paid roughly $300K to fix games

Donaghy said he struggled with a gambling addiction, causing him to risk so much. In this interview, he explains the story of his scandal, and how the mob led to his eventual arrest.

A 2025 NBA scandal exposes athlete participation in sports betting

In October 2025, a current coach, a current player, and a former player and assistant coach were arrested as part of an FBI investigation into a large-scale gambling ring. The current player, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, is accused of using non-public information to bettors.

The betting scandal that rocked college basketball

In the 1940s and '50s, illegal bookmaking in college basketball was rampant at Madison Square Garden. In the 1949-50 season, City College of New York players shaved points during games, though they played honestly in the NIT and NCAA tournaments, winning both. This OddsShark.com article explores how the points-shaving scandal was exposed, who went to jail, and its impact on the NIT and CCNY.

Sports leagues have attempted to prevent athletes from betting

As pro and collegiate sports embrace betting (and the revenue that comes with it), each league works diligently to ensure the integrity of the games by hiring private firms to analyze irregular bets. These companies have flagged bets that led to the firing of Alabama’s baseball coach, the suspension of multiple athletes at Iowa and Iowa State, and, most recently, a lifetime ban on former Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter by the NBA in April 2024.

The 1919 Chicago White Sox were banned from baseball for fixing the World Series

The Black Sox scandal involved eight 1919 Chicago White Sox members accused of intentionally losing that season’s World Series in exchange for financial kickbacks from gamblers. Ultimately acquitted in court, the players, including star outfielder “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, were permanently banned from baseball.

The NBA and its players donate the fines from technical fouls to various charities

The "Fined and Philanthropic" initiative, a grant-matching program from the National Basketball Players' Association, directs the funds toward charitable organizations.

The Pete Rose scandal was exposed by Sports Illustrated

In the spring of 1984, a reporter at Sports Illustrated answered a call on the newsroom tip line claiming player/manager Pete Rose was gambling on baseball games. That March, the magazine published the bombshell report that led Major League Baseball to investigate and then ban Rose for life.

The NBA, explained

From humble beginnings in 1891, basketball transformed into the global juggernaut we know today. The NBA, established in 1949 and later revitalized by Commissioner David Stern in the 1980s, became a model for sports branding, player marketing, and international expansion.

Ken Caminiti exposed steroid use around the league

In 2002, newly retired Ken Caminiti was the first to admit to using steroids as a player, citing how common PEDs were in the league, something that had long been rumored, especially after the single-season home run record was broken in 1998 by Mark McGwire.

In 2015, FIFA's decades-old bribery network was exposed

In 2015, the US Department of Justice exposed a 24-year bribery network influencing broadcast rights and votes on World Cup host cities. Over 40 officials were indicted for accepting bribes. FIFA implemented several reforms, including term limits for presidents and council members and salary disclosures in 2016.

The biggest controversies of the NFL

Some of the biggest controversies in NFL history didn’t just spark debate—they changed the game. From Spygate and Deflategate to concussion research and the league's ambivalent stance on it, these moments led to new rules, safety measures, and major policy shifts. Explore how each scandal shaped the league and its future.

The Hans Niemann scandal rocked chess in 2023

In 2022, GM Hans Niemann was accused by Magnus Carlsen of cheating—a controversy that led to an internal Chess.com report alleging Niemann “likely cheated” more than 100 times in online games.

The first shoes Jordan got from Nike were against NBA regulations

The initial mockups Nike gave Jordan were entirely black and red. The NBA had strict rules around shoe color at the time that these colors violated. The story goes that Nike paid the $5K fine for each game that Jordan wore the shoes in, but there’s no photographic evidence that Jordan ever wore them in a game at all. Regardless, Nike created the “banned” ad, capitalizing on the controversy.

The Punch: Tomjanovich and Washington both still feel the pain from that terrible moment

In the NBA of the 1970s, cocaine use was prevalent and fights were a regular occurrence. On one early December in 1977, a fight broke out between the Lakers and the Rockets. Read this gripping LA Times story from 1985 that recounts a near-fatal punch thrown by Laker forward Kermit Washington and the devastating consequences paid by Houston Rocket forward Rudy Tomjanovich.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Inside MLB's robo-umping experiment

Human umpires call roughly 94% of pitches right overall, but performance reduces on borderline pitches in high-leverage moments, the calls that shape game outcomes most. A professor and historian analyze early experiments with the full "robot ump" system that helped shape MLB's decision to implement a compromise "challenge" system.

An ESPN documentary alleged that Bobby Riggs threw the 'Battle of the Sexes'

According to a 2013 report, Riggs intentionally lost his 1973 match against Billie Jean King in order to settle a debt to organized crime. The documentary primarily relies on information from a man who claimed to have overheard a conversation about the fraud. King maintains that Riggs played to his full ability but was simply overconfident for his age.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

Claims about 'Twenty-One' weren't taken seriously until other quiz shows were exposed

Contestant Herb Stempel alleged that “Twenty-One” was fixed after his loss to Charles Van Doren, saying that everything on the show was “carefully choreographed,” though his claims were dismissed as mere bitterness. In truth, Stempel had been promised a network job if he went along with the con and became outspoken when it didn’t materialize. Van Doren, meanwhile, became a celebrity, donning the cover of Time magazine.

Little League sensation Danny Almonte was two years older than his competitors

The New York pitcher was a hotshot pitcher in the 2001 Little League World Series, catapulting his Bronx team to a third-place finish thanks to a no-hitter and a perfect game. Sports Illustrated eventually reported that Almonte was 14, not 12, and that his coach and father had knowingly misled Little League. They were both banned, though Almonte himself was cleared of all wrongdoing.

Horse racing's most notorious trainer

Few names are as synonymous with American horse racing as Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert. He has trained seven Kentucky Derby winners and two Triple Crown winners. But he also amassed over 30 drug violations in his career. This LA Times article dives into the suspensions and bans, and gives Baffert a space to defend his complex legacy in horse racing. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

How Jim Chanos used a Wall Street Journal article to uncover Enron's fraud

After seeing an article in the Wall Street Journal about the unclear financials of energy companies, Chanos' firm Kynikos Associates began investigating the finances and accounting of Enron, an American energy corporation that was the seventh-largest company at the time. The firm ended up making $500M on its short positions against Enron.

Hear how gerrymandering is like 'Moneyball applied to politics'

In a 2016 interview, journalist David Daley explained how Republicans used data-driven targeting after the 2010 census to lock in durable advantages, comparing modern gerrymandering strategies to the analytics revolution in baseball.

Temu was ordered to pay a $2M fine for alleged FTC violations

Specifically, Temu allegedly violated the INFORM Consumers Act of 2023 by failing to provide its customers with information and tools to help them avoid and report stolen, counterfeit, or unsafe goods.

A top Alzheimer's researcher was accused of faking results

In 2021, an investigation revealed photo manipulation in images from a seminal 2006 paper by researcher Sylvain Lesné on the role of amyloid plaques in progressive Alzheimer's disease. The revelation rocked the field, leaving many wondering whether they had tried to build on fabricated results. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent a summer training with monks in central China to train his body and mind.

The Watergate scandal took 2 years to unfold

Beginning with the June 17, 1972, break-in, the scandal progressed through Senate hearings in 1973 and the explosive revelation of Oval Office tapes, and culminated in Nixon's resignation by August 1974.

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

Search a massive database of over 4 decades of clues from the TV quiz show 'Jeopardy!'

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

Astronauts have repaired genetic damage in space using CRISPR—a molecular tool that can make precise changes to DNA and is used in single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses.

Hedge funds, the private investment firms that trade a wide swath of financial assets, make money by imposing steep fees on investors and from the fund's investment performance.

Watch how deep-sea mining equipment collects and processes polymetallic nodules—metal-rich, potato-shaped rocks—from the ocean floor and creates environmentally damaging plumes of sediments.

Ebola is a filovirus, meaning it resembles a thread under a microscope, though it sometimes twists and can resemble a bowl of spaghetti.

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.