A men’s college basketball game between Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan on Tuesday was flagged by multiple sportsbooks for suspicious wagering activity. Betting integrity firms are investigating the unusual wagers, ESPN reported.
The activity in question involves a suspiciously high bet on the first-half point spread for Tuesday’s EMU-CMU game. Several betting integrity monitors across multiple states noticed the wager and the spread increasing significantly and atypically before the game.
The first-half point spread went from CMU by 3.5 to 6.5 in the hour before tipoff. Central Michigan hit a 3-pointer with two seconds remaining in the first half to take a 39–33 lead. EMU eventually lost the game, 82-63.
Sports betting monitor Integrity Compliance 360 sent an alert to clients including sportsbooks, state gaming regulators, leagues and NCAA conferences noting the wager — the “largest wager to date” placed by this bettor — on CMU covering the spread in the first half, according to ESPN. The monitor’s investigation also discovered two high wagers from accounts in different jurisdictions on CMU’s first-half point spread.
IC360’s alert also noted that Tuesday’s game was the second flagged by sportsbooks this season that involved Eastern Michigan. The other EMU game that was flagged for suspicious betting activity was the Eagles’ matchup versus Wright State on Dec. 21.
Like the CMU wager, the Wright State bet was placed against EMU. The first-half spread for Wright State was 2.5 and the Raiders held a 38–27 halftime lead. EMU eventually won the game, 86–82.
“We became aware of the matter on Wednesday,” said Greg Steiner, EMU’s senior associate athletics director for external affairs at EMU, in a statement to ESPN and the Detroit News on Friday night. “At this time, we do not know anything further about what may have precipitated the suspicious activity. We are working with the Mid-American Conference and will provide further details as we learn additional information.”
Unusual wagering on first-half lines has been monitored on college basketball games going back to last season. Another school that has had multiple games flagged for suspicious activity is Temple, reports ESPN. First-half lines are typically about half the total of a game’s full line.
Any movement higher than that usually draws attention. If the first-half line closes higher, that often indicates that something is wrong. The full line for the EMU-CMU games was -8 and the first-half line closed at -6.5.
The Eastern Michigan men’s basketball team hasn’t played since that Jan. 14 game versus Central Michigan. EMU’s next game is scheduled for Saturday against Bowling Green.
