How Calvin Ridley got caught gambling on NFL games, explained
The league has a system in place to ensure its employees don't bet on games.
Welcome to FTW Explains, a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. Are you confused as to how an NFL player got caught betting on league games? We’re here to help.
Calvin Ridley, by his own admission, laid $1,500 in bets on NFL parlays involving his Atlanta Falcons. The indefinite suspension that resulted from those wagers will cost him at least $11.1 million in lost salary.
Ridley became the highest profile NFL player to be caught betting on league games in the modern era. So how did Roger Goodell know he was wagering relatively small sums on the Falcons? Because the NFL has a system in place for this exact scenario.
The rise of legalized sports betting across the United States has led to a network of safeguards aimed at preventing insiders from using their knowledge to bet on games. Ridley placed his parlays in the lone month the Hard Rock Sportsbook app was operational within the state of Florida — it’s since been struck down by the state Supreme Court. To do so, he had to open an account with the book that connected him to his bets by either a Social Security Number or bank account.
Once in the system, his bets were flagged by a program contracted by the NFL called Genius Sports, which handles many of the logistics behind the league’s venture into legalized gambling. Genius specifically specializes in protecting the integrity of games where betting is widespread.
Genius notified the NFL, which opened an investigation. On February 9, the league roped the Atlanta Falcons into the mix. Less than a month later, discipline was determined and meted down, leading to Ridley’s indefinite suspension.
Goodell’s lengthy punishment was a statement and a hopeful deterrent from a league eager to avoid its own Pete Rose situation. While the gears of justice turned slowly (as is NFL tradition), Ridley’s bets were quickly identified and flagged. Players, staffers or even executives who attempt to bet on games under their own accounts will be similarly sniffed out.
What if a player/coach has someone else place bets for them?
That seems like a temporary work-around, but would draw red flags as well. Here’s what Tipico’s Sunny Gupta told BetFTW’s Blake Schuster when discussing whether or not Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross could have clandestinely bet against his own team in a rebuilding year:
“Nearly every major sportsbook is part of an organization called US Integrity where we are able to post any suspicious wagering activity received on the sportsbook. Once submitted to US Integrity, the organization checks with all other sportsbooks to see if a similar suspicious wager has been detected. Criteria for ‘suspicious’ in this case would be a larger than normal stake for a particular user. A niche market where a user is demonstrating an edge for an unknown reason would also be suspicious.”
Had Ridley been using someone else’s account to bet Falcons parlays to the tune of $1,500 total he may have been able to get away with it, but the risk/reward of those wagers would have skewed absurdly high toward the former. Betting larger sums, especially within a pattern that suggests some kind of inside information, would almost certainly be flagged by Genius and definitely flagged by the sportsbook taking the action.
The lesson is clear. NFL players can’t bet on league games under their own names without the league knowing about it. They could try and avoid the system by placing bets through intermediaries, but any suspicious activity will also draw eyeballs from a league eager to protect the integrity of its game and sportsbooks not interested in losing money to inside information.
Ridley went the first way and got caught. The NFL is hoping his indefinite, at-least-one-year suspension is enough to prevent anyone else under its employ to try the latter.