Five British basketball players have been hit with worldwide bans for match-fixing following a major investigation by the sport’s governing bodies, supported by the UK’s regulatory Gambling Commission (UKGC).
The quintet–named as forward Shakem Johnston and guard Padier Wang, both aged 27-years-old; point guard Joshua McFolley, aged 28; guard Quincy Taylor, aged 34, and 31-year-old Charleston Dobbs–played for a team called the Surrey Scorchers in the now-defunct British Basketball League (BBL), which folded last year.
A sixth former Surrey Scorchers player, Dean Wanliss, aged 36, a small forward, who was found to have bet on international matches between 2019 and 2021 while registered as a player in Spain and the UK, was issued a three-year suspension.
The match-fixing investigation was led by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and the British Basketball Federation (BBF), with the full support of the UKGC’s Sports Betting Intelligence Unit (SBIU).
It was found that the now “Infamous Five” Surrey Scorcher players accepted payments “to fix the results of [at least six]basketball matches” in the 2022-2023 BBL season.
Disgraced
Taylor and Dobbs, who were hit with fines of £3,000 each (just over US$4,000) and lifetime playing bans, received the toughest sanctions.
Johnston and Wang, a former South Sudan international, were also slammed with worldwide bans by FIBA. Joshua McFolley was banned from playing until 2034.
Significantly none of the disgraced basketball players have attempted to legally appeal the sanctions.
Lastly, Wanliss, who was found to have bet on international matches between 2019 and 2021, while registered in Spain and the UK, was issued a three-year suspension.
The UKGC stated: “This case underscores the commitment of FIBA, the BBF, the Gambling Commission and other stakeholders to maintaining integrity in sport and enforcing a zero-tolerance policy toward betting-related corruption.”
Reincarnated
The Surrey Scorchers was founded in 2005 from the ashes of the Thames Valley Tigers.
Following the termination of the BBL’s operating licence by the BBF, due to concerns over financial viability, a new entity–Super League Basketball (SLB)–was created to replace the league as the top-tier professional basketball competition in Great Britain.
The Surrey Scorchers have now been reformed as part of the SLB under a new name: the Surrey 89ers.
Worldwide Scandals
Sadly, this British betting scandal is not an isolated case.
For it’s estimated that match-fixing and betting scandals are on the rise across the sporting world.
Last month, for example, British darts player Andy Jenkins was banned for 11-years and fined for match-fixing and betting on matches.
Rising Trend
And data from the International Betting Integrity Association reflects a global uptick in suspicious betting activity.
The association, reporting an 11 percent rise in betting alerts, estimates that there is widespread match-fixing or betting-related corruption in 23 countries on every continent.
A total of 63 alerts were filed in the latest quarter alone, with 64 percent of them related to football and tennis. Over half of all cases originated from Europe and North America.
Meanwhile, in Chile, footballer Arturo Vidal–famed for reaching the Champions League final with Juventus, and playing for Bayern Munich, Barcelona, and Inter Milan–is currently under investigation for a conflict of interest due to his involvement with an online betting brand.
And in the U.S., the National Basketball Association was rocked in 2024 when Toronto Raptors centre Jontay Porter became the first active NBA player to receive a lifetime ban since 1954.
Porter pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud after he was found to have shared confidential health information and deliberately limited his performance to manipulate prop bets.
He also placed bets on games himself.
