5 min

EndGame: Bowyer’s Recommended Sentence 15 Months, LLBWS Opposes Betting On Its Games, More

Our roundup of North American sports betting's top stories of the week

Ella Gorodetzky

by Ella Gorodetzky

Last updated: August 22, 2025

EndGame

The U.S. sports betting world moves quickly and unpredictably in 2025. 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.

Feds: Bowyer Should Get 15 Months

Federal prosecutors are recommending a 15-month prison sentence for illegal bookmaker Mathew Bowyer, who is set to be sentenced next Friday in a federal district court in Santa Ana, Calif. The recommendation is based, in part, on the facts that Bowyer pled guilty and cooperated with authorities in a larger investigation into illegal bookmaking.

Bowyer pled guilty to running an illegal bookmaking operation, money laundering, and filing a false tax return. According to a sentencing memorandum, he “took hundreds of millions of dollars in bets from hundreds of bettors on sporting events, made thousands of dollars daily, and used multiple accounts in his name and others’ to receive and move that money around.” The pre-sentencing report also recommends that Bowyer pay $1.6 million in restitution.

According to the report, entered into the docket last Friday, Bowyer offered “proffer statements and was willing to testify at trial” against former client Ippei Mizuhara and illegal bookmaker Damien LeForbes.

Bowyer’s sentence is significantly less than that of star client Mizuhara, who is serving a 57-month term in a federal prison in Pennsylvania. Mizuhara is the disgraced ex-interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani. He pled guilty to two federal counts in June 2024, including stealing more than $17 million from Ohtani to support his gambling habit.

Bowyer provided information that allowed government prosecutors to correctly “interpret recovered text messages and execute a search warrant on LeForbes in December 2023,” according to the report. LeForbes ultimately pled guilty to running an illegal sportsbook and money laundering. He has not been sentenced.

Jill R. Dorson

NCAA weighs in on prediction markets

During a week when news from the prediction market sector seemed to never end, the NCAA on Thursday shared a statement with ESPN’s David Purdum on the subject:

Prior to this, the NCAA had not publicly spoken on the matter and has not quite embraced legal sports betting as fully as the major U.S. professional leagues. In this instance, however, the NCAA appears to be lining up with state regulators, tribal entities, and the NBA in airing concerns about prediction markets. These markets, regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, are not subject to the same sorts of consumer protections — in particular, responsible gambling rules — as operators in legal U.S. states.

Offshore books offer bets on Little League

Offshore sportsbooks are offering bets on the Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS), which runs through Sunday. Many team managers and the Little League organization are against the idea of betting on a kids’ tournament, where players are only 10 to 12 years old, per ESPN.

All U.S. states with legal sports betting ban betting on children’s and high school sports. BetOnline, based in Panama, and Bovada, based in Costa Rica, are the two main sportsbooks offering bets on the LLBWS, and both are illegal in the U.S. BetOnline brand manager Dave Mason claims the sportsbook took more bets on the LLBWS than on some professional sports.

Little League posted a statement on X stating the purpose of these games are for enjoyment and learning, not to put pressure on young players. “No one should be exploiting the success and failures of children playing the game they love for their own personal gain,” the organization said.

A few team managers spoke out as well. South Carolina manager Dave Bogan said, “It’s just not appropriate. It feels dirty, quite honestly.”

In addition to feeling unethical for many, there are negative psychological and emotional risks on players who might feel pressure and stress, Project Play director Jon Solomon, whose organization promotes healthy sports for youth, told the AP. He believes pressure is higher on athletes when gambling is involved, which could especially affect youth.

Google allowing betting ads in Missouri

The Missouri Gaming Commission is poised to launch retail and digital sports betting Dec. 1, but Missourians might already be seeing plenty of ads on TV, billboards, and elsewhere. Add Google search results, YouTube, Gmail accounts, and more to the list of places those ads will pop up.

Per Search Engine Roundtable Monday, Google changed its “gambling and games policy” for Missouri to allow sports betting ads. The change took effect Aug. 15, though those who want to advertise must still go through a certification process before launching advertisements. Only “certified and state licensed” entities can run ads.

So far, only Circa Sports and DraftKings are licensed in Missouri. Both were awarded stand-alone mobile licenses by the commission on Aug. 15. Two other operators — BetMGM (Century Casinos) and FanDuel (St. Louis City SC) — have announced market access deals but are not yet licensed. The next application deadline in Missouri is Sept. 12.

Jill R. Dorson

A lesson in RG from a responsible gambler

Isaac Rose-Berman, sports bettor and American Institute for Boys and Men gambling fellow, asks the question: Is responsible gambling even possible? Tuesday, he posted that he believes the answer is yes but only under certain conditions. Rose-Berman came up with three pillars of responsible gaming: life first, knowing the odds, and risk management.

Rose-Berman believes the issue with responsible gambling programs is that many come from — or are funded by — casinos themselves. He says most initiatives put the burden on bettors when they should be questioning the environment that allows for problematic behaviors to form.

The first pillar, life first, advises bettors not to let gambling interfere with other areas of life. It can be difficult to look at oneself and notice a behavior becoming problematic, so Rose-Berman says a good point to look out for is when gambling starts to affect other parts of life, such as time spent with friends, distractions at work, or lack of spending money.

The second and third pillars, knowing the odds and risk management, address the importance of understanding the game and knowing the risks. Rose-Berman said setting spending limits and avoiding chasing the win can keep bettors from reaching the point where addiction can set in.

AZ regulator sends out cease-and-desists

The Arizona Department of Gaming (ADG) issued cease-and-desist letters against four unlicensed gambling operators in the state, the agency announced last Friday. Unlicensed operators do not pay state taxes or comply with state gaming regulations, so bettors are at risk of fraud or theft without state resources to help.

The ADG sent letters to Fliff Online Gambling and Thrillzz Mobile Gambling for offering event wagering, and BettySweeps Casino and Pulsz Casino for offering sweepstakes models.

This is not the first time Arizona has dealt with illegal operators this year. The ADG sent out seven cease-and-desists in late June.

Other states have dealt with similar issues this year. Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and others have sent cease-and-desists to various unregulated operators.

Ole Miss athlete dismissed for betting

Ole Miss removed one men’s tennis player and three equipment managers from the team for violating NCAA sports wagering violations, the Clarion-Ledger reported Wednesday. The school took the player off the team’s roster and terminated his scholarship after the incident was reported on Feb. 28.

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