An Indiana businessman who attempted to bet $100,000 on a baseball game between Alabama State University and Louisiana State University last year was sentenced Monday (July 29) to eight months in prison and three and a half years of supervised probation.
On April 28, 2023, Bert Neff received a text message from former Alabama baseball coach Brad Bohanan saying that Alabama had removed the starter pitcher.
He walked into an MGM casino in Ohio and attempted to place a $100,000 bet based on this information.
MGM employees rejected the bet but allowed Neff to place a $15,000 bet on LSU to win. MGM employees considered the $100,000 bet and the subsequent $15,000 bet suspicious.
The bets were quickly flagged, and within days, markets on the LSU-Alabama baseball game were suspended. Within a week, Bohanan was fired.
Bohanan has not been charged. But the NCAA fined him for 15 yearsPunishment.
Neff, whose son was playing baseball in Cincinnati when the bets were placed, was not charged with using inside information to place bets. Federal authorities charged him with obstruction of justice because he tried to delete Alabama baseball information from his phone.
He shared the information with other gamblers, four of whom placed bets on the game for LSU to win 8-6, according to a federal affidavit.
Neff is a "professional gambler"
Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward Canter called Neff a "professional gambler" in his sentencing memorandum. Neff pleaded guilty earlier this year and could have been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.
"Faced with a federal grand jury investigation, [Neff] attempted to game the system," Kanter wrote. "The defendant destroyed evidence, altered witness testimony, and made false statements to the FBI. He did this more than once. He did this dozens of times, and over the course of the better part of a year."
Sentencing took place in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
At the time of the bet, LSU was ranked No. 1 in the nation. The Tigers swept Alabama in a three-game SEC series and won the College World Series.
In this game, Alabama pulled projected starting pitcher Luke Holman an hour before the first pitch was thrown.
