Point shaving

In sports, point shaving, is a certain type of match fixing where basketball or other sports players try to prevent a team from covering a published point spread. Spread betting usually motivates point shaving. The point shaving scheme usually involves a sports gambler and several players who are likely to win the game. In exchange for a bribe, the players agree to making sure the team they are on will not cover the point spread. The gamblers then wager against the bribed team.

Basketball

Basketball is a very easy medium for shaving points. This is because of the scoring tempo of the game and the ease under which one player can influence key events. Corrupt players miss shots on purpose or commit fouls or turnovers. By doing so, he/she makes sure that his or her team fails to cover the actual point spread. However, the game is not lost.  The NCAA have a zero tolerance policy prohibiting point shaving.

Point shaving in the NCAA is a federal crime in the United States.

The National Basketball Association, or NBA, have had very few point shaving problems. However, they have had several in the past.

The basketball sports drama movie Blue Chips (1994) is the story of the coach of a fictional university. The basketball coach finds out that one of his players shaved points in a basketball game three years earlier.

References

Category:Basketball
Category:Organized crime