By Steve Menary, Jack Kerr, Samindra Kunti & Philippe Auclair
Illegal offshore betting websites including a Russian bookmaker whose front person is a porn star are offering risky bets on amateur college soccer games in contravention of the NCAA [National Collegiate Athletic Association] attempts to stop the practice.
An investigation into the practice identified dozens of men’s and women’s games during this year’s NCAA soccer season available for prop bets, which are on aspects of the game outside of the score or points spread. Soccer games on offer on offshore websites even include matches in the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics), whose members are small colleges.
In some cases, livestreams of the games are also being used by the betting operators without the knowledge of the colleges themselves.
Most of the games are being offered by 1xBet, a Russian-controlled, Cypriot-based offshore operator, which has been banned or unable to obtain a license in numerous countries around the world including Australia, Belgium, France and Morocco. Only last year, 242 1xBet brands were banned in Colombia for operating illegally.
1xBet, which was kicked out of the United Kingdom in 2019 for operating a ‘porn hub’ and continues to work with adult film actress Eva Elfie as a brand ambassador, routinely offers prop bets on NCAA soccer games. The investigation found 15 men’s and women’s games on offer on October 31 alone. Bethany Lutheran College of Minnesota’s women’s game with the Wisconsin Superior Yellow Jackets was being streamed live on 1xBet’s website.
Two days later, 1xBet was offering bets on NAIA games, which are still amateur and a lower level than the NCAA games. Matches available included Oregon Tech’s University’s game with Western Pacific, which was again accompanied by a livestream of the match.
The investigation found that NCAA games have been exploited since the 2025 college soccer season kicked off. On Aug. 31, the Albany Great Danes took on the LIU Sharks. The game was on 1xBET with a livestream of the action from New York State.
Periodic scraping during the 2025 college soccer season found 40 games on offshore websites involving 75 different teams. As this scraping did not take place on every weekend, far more games are likely to have been offered.
The investigation also found other NCAA matches on other offshore websites, including the University of Tennessee Southern Firehawks match in August with Brescia Bearcats, which was on Russian-facing offshore operator Leon.bet.
The same day, an NCAA soccer match between Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Cougars and the Denver Pioneers was also on Leon.bet but the majority of games are being offered by 1xBet, which was recently described as the ‘Wagner Group of illegal betting’ by the Council of Europe after the Russian mercenaries.
According to Article 3 of the Council of Europe’s Macolin Convention, illegal sports betting is defined as any sports betting activity where the type or operator is not allowed under the applicable law of the jurisdiction where the consumer is located.
Sports betting remains illegal in 11 U.S. states including Alabama, California, South Carolina, Texas and Utah, but while offshore websites like 1xBet are geo-blocked they can be easily used by anyone in the United States using a Virtual Private Network [VPN].
Some of the colleges whose games were being offered on offshore markets were contacted but did not respond, while the NCAA was unaware of the problem prior to being contacted for this article. What increases the risk to NCAA soccer programs is that, presumably unknown to the actual colleges and the players, people are attending these games to collect live match data that makes it possible for betting operators to offer prop bets.
Colleges often livestream their matches, partly to enable parents from other states or overseas to watch the action, but security on these platforms can be easy to overcome. “Every OTT [over-the-top] service is hacked. Security on the control plane and CDN [content delivery network] end is next to useless,” said one broadcast security expert. “Then people say ah, but I have DRM [digital rights management]. Wow, it’s like saying I have a bike lock and expecting your bike won’t be stolen.”
Even though the games are screened live, the action from these livestreams is typically delayed by 10 seconds, often more. That time lag means that anyone attending the actual match could get a bet on before betting operators relying on the live stream and beat the bookies.
Betting operators typically lose more money to these time lags than to match-fixing. To avoid this, bookmakers buy data from companies who send scouts to matches to collect live data that is transmitted instantly to enable betting operators to update their sports books.
The three biggest data companies – Genius, Sportradar and Stats Perform — all have major exposure to the United States both in terms of match coverage but also corporately. Genius and Sportradar are listed on the U.S. Stock Exchange, while Stats Perform’s headquarters are in Chicago.
In April 2025, Genius Sports extended a contract with the NCAA with a deal that would allow licensed U.S. betting operators to use its logos inside their apps and receive official data from games for the first time.
At the time, Tim Buckley, NCAA senior vice president of external affairs, said in a statement: “NCAA data will only be available to sportsbooks if they remove risky bets from their platforms and agree to fully cooperate with NCAA investigations and provide key information including geolocation data and device records. The NCAA retains the right to terminate any sportsbook data license if integrity protections are violated — ensuring real accountability.”
The bets being offered by offshore sports books on amateur NCAA soccer games are certainly risky, as they are being offered by offshore sports books, which rarely work with sports bodies to provide information about suspicious betting that can indicate match-fixing and unearth the type of problems that have dogged U.S. basketball.
The question for the NCAA and its college soccer programs is how livestreams of their games are being hacked and who is sending data scouts to their matches to enable prop betting that endangers the integrity of the games.
Genius denies sending scouts to NCAA college games to collect data. “Genius Sports is the exclusive official data partner for NCAA postseason tournaments such as March Madness and we don’t collect data on NCAA soccer nor do we work with 1xBet,” said a spokesperson for the company.
The NCAA said: “We do not have a comment at this time.” Sportradar, Stats Perform and 1xBet did not respond to requests for a comment
- Read Soccer America’s Q&A with Steve Menary HERE.