EndGame: Bookie Bowyer Walks, March Madness Betting Record

The U.S. sports betting world moves quickly and unpredictably in 2026. In order to properly take stock of it all, we offer InGame’s “EndGame,” an end-of-week compilation of the top storylines, some overlooked items, and all the other news bits from this past week that we found interesting.

Illegal bookie Bowyer released from prison

Mathew Bowyer, a focal point of scandals ranging from Las Vegas casinos to Major League Baseball, was released from prison on Monday, according to an iGaming Business report. Incarcerated in October in federal minimum-security prison, he’d served less than half of his sentence of 12 months and one day. He was released to a halfway house, where he’ll remain until his full release from supervision on or around June 17.

Bowyer pleaded guilty to operating a massive illegal gambling business, money laundering, and tax evasion. His bookmaking crimes led to nearly $20 million in fines for MGM Resorts and Resorts World; he was also linked to the illegal-betting case involving Ippei Mizuhara, former interpreter for MLB star Shohei Ohtani.

Could March Madness handle hit $4 billion?

While the American Gaming Association projected this week about $3.3 billion in legal March Madness wagering, gaming consultancy H2 Gambling Capital put out an even higher estimate, saying sportsbooks in the U.S. will take in slightly less than $4 billion in wagers on this year’s NCAA college basketball tournaments. If the handle achieves H2’s projected $3.97 billion, it will be 6.7% higher than last year’s $3.7 billion and nearly double 2023’s handle of $2.2 billion.

That doesn’t include prediction market trading, which H2 projects will be $530 million.

In addition, H2 estimates that the sportsbooks will hold 7%, an increase from last year’s 6.1%. H2 notes that March Madness is typically less profitable for sportsbooks than professional sporting events, since high-margin same-game parlays and player props aren’t as popular. That said, March Madness is the most-bet event of the year (the Super Bowl is the most-bet game), so even though the margin may be lower, the books will enjoy a healthy bottom line.

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Women’s sports betting media coverage lacking

A new study found — unsurprisingly — that women’s sports are grossly underrepresented in media coverage of sports betting.

As reported by Nebraska Today on Friday, “The gender dichotomy of wagering expertise: A content analysis of Daily Wager/ESPN BET Live shows during March Madness,” conducted by professors at University of Nebraska–Lincoln and University of South Florida, was based on an analysis of four years (2021-2024) of sports betting coverage around March Madness. The authors determined that 10% of the airtime and less than 9% of the recommended picks were devoted to the women’s tournament. In addition, women broadcasters represented only 16% of total on-air talent.

Even in 2024, superstar Caitlin Clark’s last year in college, when more people watched the women’s tournament than the men’s, “in terms of the amount of time and betting recommendations, it didn’t really change at all,” said Brian Petrotta, the study’s lead author.

As the foremost women’s basketball expert on the planet — humbly — and the greatest gambler to have ever lived — again, humbly — put every dollar on Iowa’s women to win. There’s never been more ratings at stake on one team. It’s Caitlin Clark or bust. And busting isn’t happening.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) April 5, 2024

Two former MLS players banned for betting

Major League Soccer on Monday issued a lifetime suspension to two former players, Derrick Jones and Yaw Yeboah, for violating the league’s gambling policy. Jones and Yeboah were placed on administrative leave in October after MLS received “suspicious betting alerts” from an integrity partner and launched an investigation that concluded the two players “engaged in extensive gambling on soccer, including on their own teams, during the 2024 and 2025 seasons.”

In a game in October 2024, both players bet on Jones to draw a yellow card — and he did. Though the investigation uncovered no evidence that any of the pair’s gambling affected the outcome of a match, it did conclude that both “most likely” shared inside information with other bettors.

MLS just dropped lifetime bans on Derrick Jones and Yaw Yeboah for heavy gambling—including betting on their own games and even cashing in on Jones getting a yellow Wild stuff, MLS ain't playing around.
— Braxson Grey (@braxson_grey) March 10, 2026

Capital Group reduces Flutter exposure

One of FanDuel parent company Flutter’s largest shareholders, the Capital Group, has reduced its stake in the sports betting giant by 5%, SBC News wrote on Friday. An L.A.-based global investment firm managing more than $3 trillion in assets, Capital Group as of March 10 sold approximately 918,000 shares of Flutter worth around $100 million at the current share price.

SBC News cited “a shakeup in the investor make-up” of Flutter, with Capital Group selling, while British investment firm Parvus doubled its holdings to 10.7% and billionaire Kenneth Dart’s private fund Candle Lake increased its ownership to 18%.

Flutter’s share price has plunged 50% in the past 12 months, blamed in part on uncertainty about the future of prediction markets in the U.S. Some institutional funds are apparently trading the “no” on FanDuel Predicts.

Baller, shot callers

ShotQuality, the AI-driven real-time performance intelligence platform used by sportsbooks and quantitative trading groups, has partnered with Kalshi, a CFTC-designated prediction market exchange running at approximately 90% sports volume. The deal centers on feeding structured, decision-grade data from live events into Kalshi’s markets.

“Real-time information is becoming increasingly important across trading environments, sports data, and prediction markets,” said ShotQuality founder and CEO Simon Gerszberg. Kalshi’s Arjun Sawai, head of market operations, framed the partnership in broader terms: “As prediction markets grow into a mainstream financial product, the infrastructure behind them has to keep pace. ShotQuality is the kind of partner that helps us build toward that standard.”

The announcement comes as Kalshi’s national profile grows, and as it navigates an intensifying legal battle over the legality of sports event contracts, with federal and state courts issuing conflicting rulings on whether CFTC oversight preempts state gambling laws. It’s a battle that legal analysts and Joe Twitter agree will ultimately arrive at the doorstep of the Supreme Court.

— Brett Smiley

10-for-1 Livvy Dunne

In an “Explained By” ad campaign for March Madness, Fanatics spokesperson, gymnast, and social-media personality Livvy Dunne (more accurately, 10 of her) touts the sportsbook brand in a “new and cinematic way,” as described by the press release. See for yourself.

Odds and ends

The NCAA continues to batten down the sports betting hatches. ESPN reported Tuesday that the league announced it will monitor the referees who officiate the college basketball, baseball, and softball championships for gambling by way of ProhiBet. The names of more than 220 postseason officials will be uploaded, then cross-checked against sportsbook data to detect potential gambling violations, which could be cause for dismissal.
UK-based bet365 is “investing in North America for the long term” with a new campaign, “Winning is Everything.” The online sports betting, casino, poker, and bingo operator is launching the campaign with a special early payout offer for the first round of March Madness: Bettors receive an automatic early payout if their selected team takes a 10-point lead at any time during the game. For the rest of the tournament after the first round, a 15-point lead will merit an early payout.