In flagging the Alabama baseball gambling scandal, 'the system worked.' This time.

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Last week, Alabama fired baseball coach Brad Bohannon, after a school investigation found him tied to unusual betting activity around an Alabama/LSU baseball game.

According to multiple reports, U.S. Integrity, a gambling monitoring service, flagged two unusual bets placed in Cincinnati, both on LSU to win the game. Then, Ohio’s sportsbooks stopped accepting bets on Alabama baseball, and other states followed suit.

“The system worked,” Louisiana Gaming Control Board chair Ronnie Johns said to The Athletic. “We have to protect the integrity of sports wagering or the system will crater.”

Well…in this case, it certainly did. But was that because the regulatory system is equipped to catch any suspicious activity that could impact the integrity of competition, or because the Bohannon case was especially clumsy? Or perhaps a combination of the two?

As sports betting becomes even more commonplace in the United States, and as athletic departments and college conferences consider even closer relationships with potential partners in the gaming industry…it’s an important question to ask.

Let’s look at the Alabama situation in more detail

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