Big Money Undefeated in 7 of 7 NBA Games Reffed by Scott Foster

You'll recall that Foster was the referee who received more than 134 phone calls from Tim Donaghy. Now, R.J. Bell, a sports betting expert, has examined the lines in the games surrounding those telephone calls. He found that when the line moved two points or more (described as a significant line move in NBA games), the money moving that line was 7 for 7. Per Bell:

"During the 2006-07 period under investigation, seven games refereed by Scott Foster had lopsided enough betting on one team to move the point spread by at least 2 points; those seven teams were undefeated against Vegas meaning that the big-money gamblers won a 7 of 7 times on Fosters games; the odds of that happening randomly are less than 1%.Statistics alone cannot convict, but its certainly noteworthy that seven times in Fosters games one team was bet extremely heavily, and all seven times that team won."

Later on Bell examines the particular circumstances of a few of these games. I'm far from an expert in gambling but this story is gaining credence. And the NBA, for once, seems to be behind the curve in explaining away all of these "coincidences."

Big Money Undefeated in Accused Refs Games [Pregame.com]