Photo Credit: NBA / 2K Sports

Players Only NBA 2K20 Tournament Already Has A Gambling Scandal

Just like almost every other sports league in the world, the NBA currently is on hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

While we don’t know when or even if the season will continue, the league’s owners are convinced that there can’t be a return to action until June, at the earliest.

With real basketball not being played, the NBA has organized a players only NBA 2K tournament that features 16 actual NBA players going against each other in NBA2K.

As you can imagine, bookmakers immediately jumped in, which turned out to be a huge mistake.

The tournament’s first game, the matchup between Kevin Durant and Derrick Jones Jr., already ended in a lot of gambling controversy after people discovered that the matchup was pre-taped.

Cool Media, a company that creates odds released a statement saying that someone knew the outcome of the game. Per NBC Sports:

The NBA 2K Players Only Tournament over the weekend caused a headache for sportsbooks because it was pre-taped, and information was ultimately leaked.

“We initially made Durant the favorite to win the tournament, but he was taking very little action over the course of the first 24 hours,” Robert Cooper, Odds Manager at SportsBetting.ag, said. “When we posted the first-round matchup lines and the bets were completely one-sided toward Jones Jr., it became obvious that someone knew the outcome of the game.”

But wondering why one of the oldest participants doesn’t get a lot of betting action, even though Cool Media made him the odd-favorite? Well that might just be common sense. I’d also pick any younger player over a 30+ year old veteran when it comes to video games.

It seems as the bookie simply based their odds on how good the players actual 2K ratings are, which is ridiculous.