Roderick Winkler of Little Rock, Ark., entered a plea of guilty Monday to bribery in sporting contests, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud, charges arising from his role in a bribery and point-shaving scheme to fix NCAA Division I men’s basketball games.
The defendant was charged by indictment in January, per the announcement by United States attorney David Metcalf and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Easter District of Pennsylvania.
As detailed in court filings, the overall scheme to influence or fix Chinese Basketball Association and NCAA men’s basketball games lasted from approximately September 2022 to February 2025. After co-schemers profited on fixed CBA games, they turned their attention to influencing NCAA men’s basketball games.
Winkler, 32, was a “fixer” in the scheme, working with others to recruit and bribe NCAA men’s basketball players to underperform and help ensure their team failed to cover the point spread in games during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 NCAA men’s basketball seasons.
"Then, through various sportsbooks, the defendant helped to arrange for large wagers to be placed on those games, betting against the team whose player or players they had bribed to engage in this point-shaving scheme," according to Monday's announcement. "He had a leadership role in the scheme, particularly in recruiting, managing and paying players for their roles in the scheme."
Winkler and other fixers approached and communicated with the players, in person and through social media, text message communications and cellular telephone calls, offering the players bribe payments ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 per game.
Winkler and other fixers specifically targeted college players for whom the bribe payments would meaningfully supplement, or exceed, the student-athletes’ legitimate opportunities for NIL compensation. The fixers also generally targeted players on teams that were underdogs in games and sought to have them fail to cover the spreads in those games. Many of these players accepted the offers.
In total, the bribery and point-shaving scheme involved more than 39 players on over 17 different NCAA Division I men’s basketball teams, who fixed and attempted to fix more than 29 NCAA games. The scheme also resulted in more than $3 million in fraudulent wagers placed on these games, and more than $1.1 million in financial losses to sportsbooks throughout the country.
The defendant is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 8 and faces a maximum possible term of 45 years’ imprisonment, three years of supervised release and a monetary fine.
