Temple-UAB men's basketball game flagged for suspicious gambling activity

Unusual wagering activity around the Temple University-Alabama-Birmingham men’s basketball game Thursday night prompted a gambling watchdog company to send an alert to casinos, according to a Sports Illustrated report.

Most sportsbooks had UAB at around a two-point favorite when markets opened Wednesday, but the point spread jumped as high as eight points at some casinos, according to line movement tracking by VegasInsider, prior to the game’s tip-off on Thursday.

UAB easily covered the point spread Thursday night, dominating the Owls in a 100-72 win at Temple’s Liacouras Center.

The movement caused U.S. Integrity to flag the activity to sportsbooks, according to the report, which says the watchdog group has been monitoring Temple games “for a while.”

Odds and point spreads can change for various reasons, but many times the movement is a reaction to a bookmaker taking action on one side. The movement in Thursday night’s line would suggest sportsbooks were seeing an influx of money on the Blazers.

“We are aware of the social media posts regarding last night’s men’s basketball game,” a Temple spokesperson said in a Friday morning email. “We will review the reports thoroughly in accordance with university and NCAA policies. While we can’t comment any further at this time, we take this matter very seriously.”

Tom Fenstermaker, director of communications for the AAC, told Sports Illustrated the conference is “aware they [U.S. Integrity] flagged it.” In a subsequent comment to The Inquirer, he wrote: “We can confirm that we are clients of US Integrity. That is all the comment we will have at this time.”

U.S. Integrity works with many conferences, including Temple’s American Athletic Conference, to monitor suspicious wagering activity. The watchdog organization was involved in catching the suspicious gambling activity around the Alabama baseball program that eventually led to the firing of the team’s coach, Brad Bohannon.

Temple (11-19) has struggled in Adam Fisher’s first season as head coach. The Owls fell to 4-13 in conference play, tied for last place with Tulane in the AAC after Thursday’s setback. Their regular season finale is Sunday at Texas-San Antonio before heading to Fort Worth, Texas for the conference tournament.

Staff editor Devin Jackson contributed reporting.