Bert Neff, an ex-college pitcher from Indiana who the feds described as a professional gambler, is heading to prison for eight months.
Citing a spokesperson for the US Attorney’s Office Northern District of Alabama (USAO-NDA), ESPN has reported Neff’s Monday sentencing for his role in a betting scandal involving an SEC baseball game on April 28, 2023.
Neff approached the BetMGM sportsbook at the Cincinnati Reds’ Great American Ball Park to place a more than $100,000 in bets on LSU to beat Alabama. When the sportsbook refused the bet, an irritated Neff told BetMGM staff that he had inside information on a pitcher and proceeded to implicate then-Alabama baseball coach Brad Bohannon, who was fired in May 2023.
In March, Neff pleaded guilty to federal obstruction of justice charges that included destroying evidence, tampering with witnesses, and submitting false statements to the FBI during a probe into shady betting activity on the game.
he worked to game the system”
In the sentencing memorandum, Assistant US Attorney Edward Canter stated that when Neff was “faced with a federal grand jury investigation, he worked to game the system.”
“The defendant destroyed evidence, tampered with witnesses, and provided false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He did not do this once. He did it on dozens of occasions, and he did so for the greater part of a year.”
Neff must also serve three years of supervised release after his stint in prison.
