College Sports Corruption

IMG’s Forstmann Gambled on College Sports, Suit Alleges

While the sports and entertainment conglomerate IMG Worldwide was representing top college coaches from 2004 to 2007, its chairman, Ted Forstmann, was betting hundreds of thousands of dollars on college football and the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament, according to a lawsuit filed last month in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

The lawsuit comes at a time when the N.C.A.A. is grappling with the continuing problem of gambling among its student-athletes and those involved in college athletics.

A 2008 N.C.A.A. study of collegiate gambling, for example, found that nearly 30 percent of all male athletes admitted wagering at least once in a year’s time on college or pro sports in violation of N.C.A.A. rules.

In that same study, 0.9 percent of the responding players in Division I football and 0.6 percent of those in men’s basketball said they had accepted money or some other reward for “playing poorly” in games. One percent to 2 percent of athletes in each sport said they knew of teammates who did so, according to the study.

Through a spokesman, Forstmann said that the allegations outlined in the lawsuit were inaccurate and IMG said that he had not been involved in the firm’s representation of college coaches.

Over the years, IMG has become a significant presence in the multibillion-dollar business of college sports.

Shortly after Forstmann made scores of bets worth nearly $100,000 on the 2007 N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament, according to the lawsuit, IMG increased its investment significantly in collegiate athletics. In May 2007 it bought the Collegiate Licensing Company, a licensing and marketing company, and followed in November 2007 with the purchase of Host Communications, a longtime N.C.A.A. partner offering corporate sponsorships, radio and television programs, Internet, national advertising and signage sales.

Now, IMG is the licensing agency for nearly 200 collegiate properties, including the N.C.A.A., the Bowl Championship Series, the Rose Bowl and universities like the University of Kentucky.

Wally Renfro, an N.C.A.A. vice president, said the IMG provides licensing support, game programs and ancillary events production, including those surrounding the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament. The suit contends that Forstmann bet more than $600,000 — in amounts from $2,000 to $23,000 — on the men’s basketball tournament from 2004 to 2007 while IMG was representing college basketball coaches.

“IMG was not representing the N.C.A.A. from 2004 to 2007,” Renfro said. “However, as almost everyone knows, the N.C.A.A. doesn’t like anyone betting on college sports.”

The alleged betting habits of Forstmann, 70, a billionaire and philanthropist, first came to light last month in the lawsuit filed by Agate Printing, which alleges fraud, interference with contract and breach of contract. In the complaint, Jim Agate, the head of Agate Printing, is seeking extensive damages for lost business that he said Forstmann had promised him.

In the suit, Agate also contended that he placed millions of dollars in bets on behalf of Forstmann — among the 70 pages of exhibits are dates, amounts and specific college and professional games wagered on, a wire transfer from Forstmann, and a transcript of a voice mail allegedly left by Forstmann on Sept. 9, 2007, confirming that he had bet $10,000 each on the Mets and the Boston Red Sox, and $20,000 on the New England Patriots.

Forstmann declined to answer questions Tuesday about the allegations or his betting history. He has acknowledged publicly that he bet through Agate, including $40,000 on one of his company’s clients, Roger Federer, in the 2007 French Open men’s final. He says he quit betting altogether in 2007. He denied, however, that suit’s charge that he raised the bet after talking to Federer and receiving inside information.

Forstmann told the Web site The Daily Beast that he had been betting on sports since college. He also indicated he was aware he might be running afoul of the N.C.A.A., saying college athletic officials “are like priests and now they’re asking me if I bet on March Madness.”

“Can you imagine that, I bet a few bucks on sports,” he was quoted as saying.

In an e-mail on Tuesday, Forstmann’s spokesman, Michael Sitrick, wrote, “First, we do not believe that the list of alleged bets by Mr. Forstmann which was attached to Agate’s complaint is accurate.”

Sitrick added: “Mr. Forstmann is not going to litigate in the media. He will say, through me as his spokesman, that allegations in the lawsuit are inaccurate and, if the case ever gets to trial, they will be proven as such.”

Gary O’Hagan, the IMG agent representing coaches in the professional and college ranks, refused to disclose the names of his clients who may have participated in the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament over the years. Villanova’s Jay Wright, for example, is listed on IMG’s Web site as a client. One of Forstmann’s many bets on the 2006 N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament, the lawsuit asserts, was a $7,000 wager on Villanova, made on March 25, 2006.

“I have never discussed my client list with Ted Forstmann nor has Ted ever asked me to show him the list or talk about any particular client,” O’Hagan wrote in an e-mail. “I have had a couple of passing hellos with Ted over the years, but we have never discussed IMG’s coaching clients or client lists. I can also categorically state that Ted has never contacted any of IMG’s coaching clients nor have any of these clients ever contacted Ted about anything. No contact either way.”

In fact, Sitrick wrote, “to avoid any concerns or perceptual issues in the future,” IMG’s lawyers are putting together a rigorous compliance program restricting and prohibiting wagering.

He added: “This program will be more comprehensive than the applicable golf, tennis and N.C.A.A. regulations and codes of conduct. All IMG employees will be required to comply with this program.”


Found here:

This one has a few interesting ties...

A guy named Ted Forstmann, is the chairman of IMG -- and their training academy in Florida is where BU's Andrew Davis went...
But IMG also involves agents that represent athletes and coaches, and this guy who is the head of IMG is involved in hundreds of thousands of dollars in gambling on NCAA games........

so even though this is a little different from the players themselves gambling on games, it is not too much different since this guy and his outfit represent many of the players in those contests he is gambling on...so the connections are surely there to hint that he was paying money to and might have had some influence on the players and the outcome of the games he's gambling on..
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/sp...1gambling.html