Sean Griffin has made a career studying tax evasion, money laundering, illegal gambling and fraud. A professor of criminal justice specializing in organized crime, Griffin is a leading expert on sports betting scandals and the criminal activity surrounding illegal gambling.
A Philadelphia native, Griffin began his career as an officer with the Philadelphia Police Department after graduating from Penn State with a degree in criminal justice. Law enforcement was a natural choice for Griffin, whose father served on the Philadelphia police force for 24 years.
While serving on the force himself, Griffin began working on his master’s degree at Penn State, a three-and-a-half hour drive from Philadelphia. Although his father and brother were both police officers, Griffin knew he wanted to pursue a different path. After four years of juggling a full-time job, a long commute and graduate studies, he left the police force to focus on his academic work, earning his doctorate in 2000.
Before turning his attention to sports betting, Griffin wrote two books about Philadelphia’s Black Mafia. His research also led to work as an interview subject and consultant for an episode of BET’s “American Gangster.”
Griffin’s interest in sports betting was sparked when news of the Tim Donaghy scandal broke in 2007. Donaghy, an NBA referee, admitted to betting on games he officiated between 2003 and 2007. “I was simply an organized crime researcher,” said Griffin. “In organized crime circles, we obviously always research sports gambling, but it’s very low- level stuff, meaning you would know of local bookmakers who would take regular bets; they would either be financed by, or more likely extorted by, organized crime groups. This was all before sports gambling became legal in 2018. Betting, money laundering, tax evasion—big white-collar crime stuff.”
The Donaghy scandal was different. A referee betting on games he officiated raised questions about the integrity of professional basketball. “The question everyone had was, well, was he actually fixing them?” said Griffin. “I got involved because I wanted to see what, if anything, the media had missed.”
To Griffin’s surprise, there was a lot to uncover. He found betting-line data for every game Donaghy had officiated, gained access to his electronic betting records and assembled what he believes is evidence that Donaghy had fixed games. “Bets on his games were winning 78%, which is unheard of. Professional gamblers are thrilled if they’re above 50% and he’s winning 78% of games he officiated,” said Griffin.
Griffin published his findings in his 2011 book, Gaming the Game: The Story Behind the NBA Betting Scandal and the Gambler Who Made It Happen. The book garnered national attention and was cited in congressional testimony and arguments before the Supreme Court over the legalization of sports betting.
Griffin has been called on by news organizations across the country, including CBS, Bloomberg News and NPR, to explain the latest sports betting scandals.
Most recently, Griffin has offered insight into two federal investigations involving professional and college basketball. In the NBA case, prosecutors allege that current and former players, a coach and bettors used confidential information about injuries, lineups and player availability to place fraudulent wagers. A separate NCAA point-shaving case involves allegations that dozens of Division I players were paid to underperform in games during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons.
“In the NBA scandal, it’s an interesting mix of people who weren’t necessarily fixing games, but instead were providing information to gamblers so that they could manipulate betting lines and bet on them,” said Griffin. “The NCAA college basketball scandal involved dozens of players, dozens of college teams, and they were actually fixing games.”
Griffin draws on his research in a course he teaches on organized crime. “I always joke with my students that my classes are not necessarily a how-to on committing crimes because I always walk through how these people get caught,” said Griffin. “In the case of the current NBA scandal, the way the bets were placed was begging people to flag them.”