MMA community has been carefully watching what’s happening with James Krause in relation to a recent betting irregularity during the match featuring one of his trainees.
Many fans are skeptical about Darrick Minner’s performance – and if he had a part in moving he line by betting on himself.
As of right now, Krause’s license is suspended and he hasn’t been able to corner any of his athletes since earlier last month.
NSAC and NJSAC are currently investigating while Canada’s provinces Ontario and Alberta already suspended betting on ALL UFC events.
UFC legend Matt Brown recently commented on the current James Krause UFC betting scandal.
On “The Fighter vs. The Writer,” Brown made the claim that the 36-year-old Krause is a kind guy and a wise businessman. Despite the fact that Krause undoubtedly overstepped the mark with his discord account takeover business, he is still innocent until proven guilty.
“We did a UFC summit back in, I would say 2010, 2011. They used to have these summits every year, and they’d bring all the fighters out and put us in a room and give us speeches from all these people… They had an FBI guy come in once and he was talking about sports betting and how we shouldn’t be doing it and how we’d get in trouble if it happens.”
The 41-year-old emphasized that everything changed over the course of the next years as betting sites took over and MMA betting became popular. Brown reportedly knows several coaches that wager on bouts and have insider knowledge. He said that the UFC and the sport of MMA are being singled out, noting that insider betting occurs in every sport.
Ariel Helwani outlines Timeline of James Krause UFC gambling scandal
NSAC suspends James Krause’s coaching license
On November 19th Miles Johns says UFC suspended Krause from cornering him at UFC Vegas 65. This is a misunderstanding on his behalf – Nevada State Athletic Commission suspended Krause while he was under investigation as such he was not permitted to corner.
On the same day, New Jersey division of Gaming enforcement forbids sportsbooks on taking bets on fights that involve James Krause in any capacity.
1% Club Discord and Youtube channel deleted
On November 24th, discord was shut down as was the youtube channel for the 1% podcast.
Ontario and Alberta ban betting on UFC events
On December 1st, Ontario started requiring gaming operators to stop offering and accepting UFC bets.
On December 2nd, Alberta followed Ontario and forbid betting on UFC events.
On December 2nd, UFC released a statement addressing the incident and releasing Minner.
“Further, the UFC has released Derrick Minter from the organization Gigantic. Basically, he’s out, he’s banned, he’s been cut out. And so the UFC, I think, puts out the statement to say, look, the cancer is gone, we are cutting him out. The problem is, has the damage been done? Did he shine a light on an issue within the sport that now with investigations unfolding and I’m told on the radar of the FBI, do they start pulling on threads that lead to other things?” – Helwani wondered.
“This is the most serious threat to the future growth of the UFC in quite some time, if not ever. And dare I say obviously the health of its competitors paramount. But this is akin to when TRT was, you know, running through the company and they were trying to, you know, stop the bleeding there, so to speak. And you could say that in terms of, you know, integrity and legitimacy, if people don’t believe that what you are doing is on the up and up, there is a huge problem there, especially when it comes to fighting and combat sports…”
Helwani goes on to detail that this might be a systematic issue and details an anecdote from an ESPN article by Raimondi:
“And there’s an article written where he talks about where he spoke to a coach who was in the locker room before a fight and sees that another fighter who’s training warming up in the same locker room, he sees something about the fighter being off. He pulls out his phone. He places a bet against the fighter. Everything is so open.”
But it’s not all over for the UFC just yet, Helwani confirms other Canadian provinces are not stopping UFC betting:
“One last slide as of right now, b.c, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, P.E.I., Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Quebec. All saying as of right now they are not going to stop MMA betting.”