More Iowa State players who faced sports betting charges named this week
The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation this week released the names of eight additional student-athletes and former student-athletes charged last year as part of a sports betting investigation.
All eight were charged in August with tampering with records after placing bets on sports competitions under accounts registered to other people. All but one have pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of underage gambling and have been fined $645.
The ISU student-athletes and former student-athletes are:
- Howard V. Brown III, a former defensive lineman, accused of placing 67 mobile bets totaling $815, including one wager on an ISU football game while he was a player. Brown placed a moneyline bet on Texas Tech and against Iowa State for the Nov. 19, 2022, game, which Texas Tech won 14-10, court records state.
- Tyler Claiborne, a redshirt sophomore wide receiver, accused of placing 43 bets worth $180 total under his sister’s name while he was under 21, the legal age to gamble.
- Eddie Lemos, a redshirt sophomore defensive back, accused of placing 270 online bets worth $979 total through a DraftKings account under his mother’s name. Lemos placed some of the bets when he was under age 21 and two bets were on ISU basketball games, court records state.
- Jeremiah “Trey” Mathis III, a former ISU football player, placed 183 mobile sports wagers worth $556 under another person’s name in 2021, when he was underage, court records state.
- Osun Osunniyi, former men’s basketball player, used a FanDuel account under his mother’s name to place 21 wagers totaling more than $125 on events that included NCAA basketball games, the criminal complaint states. Osunniyi failed to show up for a Sept. 14 court hearing and now Story County has a warrant for his arrest. He is listed on the roster of Hubo Limburg United, a Belgian professional basketball team.
- Nate Schon, a redshirt freshman wrestler, completed 865 mobile wagers worth $11,700 in 2021, before he was 21, the DCI alleged. FanDuel and DraftKings accounts controlled by Schon made 21 wagers on ISU sporting events while he was an ISU wrestler, the complaint states. Schon also placed 2,240 mobile/online casino transactions worth $27,700 in his home state of Pennsylvania, DCI alleged.
- Drew Woodley, senior wrestler, accused of using a DraftKings account registered to his mother to place 311 online wagers, 180 of which before he was 21. These bets were worth $2,271 and included 11 bets on ISU basketball and 10 on ISU football, the criminal complaint alleged. The accounts Woodley used also participate in fantasy sports competitions with financial stakes, the DCI alleged.
The newly-release list of student-athletes charged includes Jake English, a pitcher for Ellsworth Community College. The DCI alleged he placed 2,633 wagers worth $13,600 under a FanDuel account registered to his brother.
Of the 25 people charged in Story and Johnson counties since last summer, 16 have pleaded guilty to underage gambling, a simple misdemeanor. Another seven cases are pending, one was dismissed and one was moved to juvenile court.
The DCI said this week agents’ use of geofencing software to target campus buildings used by student-athletes was legal and part of their responsibility to enforce Iowa’s sports betting program, started in 2019.
