Tulane Aims to Protect Against Sports Betting Information Leaks

Tulane University is requiring all coaches, staff members, and any personnel close to the athletic teams, like student managers, to sign a nondisclosure agreement in order to keep relevant player information from leaking out of the athletic department.

College athletics and legal sports betting have collided to produce several cautionary tales and troubling issues this year. 

One university is taking it upon itself to help uphold the integrity of competition and protect its student-athletes. 

According to a report from SI.com, Tulane University is requiring all coaches, staff members, and any personnel close to the athletic teams, like student managers and tutors, to sign a nondisclosure agreement in order to keep relevant player information from leaking out of the athletic department. 

In the agreement, employees are not allowed to use anything they know to place a wager at an online sports betting sites or share any information gathered through working on the teams with anyone associated with sports betting. 

Failure to comply would result in disciplinary action and possibly termination, according to the document obtained by SI.com. 

The primary reason and concern for Tulane, according to athletic director Troy Dannen, is that someone who works with a team could see an injured player or find out about a disciplinary action and use that to affect the integrity of the game.

Growing incidents

Nothing particularly concerning has occurred at Tulane, which is located in the legal sports betting state of Louisiana, but this is an effort to keep issues from arising at the collegiate level. 

Players and staff members from the University of Iowa and Iowa State are being investigated for breaking NCAA sports betting violations. 

Several players at both schools, including Iowa State quarterback Hunter Dekkers, have also been charged with illegally tampering with records so that they could either place bets underage or avoid NCAA detection. 

Earlier this summer, the University of Alabama fired head baseball coach Brad Bohannon after he was caught by surveillance in an Ohio sportsbook communicating via phone with a man trying to place a six-figure wager at the Cincinnati Great American Ballpark on a game Bohannon was coaching that day. The man received information from Bohannon that Alabama scratched the starting pitcher, and the man was trying to bet on opponent LSU before it was flagged. 

Unregulated situations

Injury report policies in collegiate athletics have long been determined by the universities, but the influx of legal sports betting and the access that comes with that is leading to how health matters are handled. 

The Big Ten became the first conference to require all of its football teams to release an official injury report two hours before kickoff this season. 

The Big 12 has teamed with U.S. Integrity, a firm that provides sports betting integrity resources and solutions to pro leagues like MLB, UFC, and the PGA Tour as well as sportsbooks like Caesars, FanDuel, and DraftKings.

The Mountain West Conference aligned itself with ProhiBet to use the technology company’s monitoring and notification platform.   

LSU football coach Brian Kelly recently announced that his program will use an NFL-like injury report three times per week in order to combat integrity issues.