Brendan Sorsby Placed as Much as $90K in Bets; His Fate Hangs in the Balance

Brendan Sorsby will have his fate decided – or nearly so – in a Monday appearance before Judge Ken Curry at the 99th District Court of Lubbock County, Texas.

The player, who is currently suspended from the upcoming NCAA football season, is seeking an injunction against the association’s decision, essentially allowing him to re-enter the fray.

As the hearing is now underway, other details have surfaced as to the extent of Sorsby’s gambling while he was part of Indiana, Cincinnati, and Texas Tech. Based on a 111-page affidavit filed and reported on by ESPN’s David Purdum, citing OutKick, a media outlet, Sorsby has placed as much as $90,000 in total bets in four years.

The Scale of Sorsby’s Gambling

He started when he was playing at the Indiana Hoosiers and has continued to do so, gambling with platforms such as Hard Rock Bet and FanDuel, as well as fantasy platforms such as Underdog and PrizePicks. Sorsby’s spiraling into gambling did not necessarily have to do with the player trying to use insider information to influence markets, and there is no evidence so far that he did.

However, he has been avidly betting on a variety of sports, including college football, the NBA, the PGA Tour, and MLB. The player also turned to other people to facilitate his betting, with the total bets placed on his own amounting to some 2,900 wagers and worth more than $30,000.

His friends placed about $60,000 on his behalf. One serious breach of trust, however, has to do with the 2022 season when Sorsby was selected as a redshirt and placed 40 bets on his own team, arguing that this was a way for him to feel closer to the team, Indiana.

He insisted that he only placed bets on Hoosiers to win, and he stopped betting on Indiana right ahead of his debut game against Penn State. While the NCAA acknowledged this, it also said that the universal rule applied – a student-athlete may not bet on any sport that also has a collegiate-level competition.

Sorsby Pushes Back Against the NCAA

Sorsby’s defense has criticized the antagonistic stance that the NCAA has chosen to pursue against the player, insisting that he needed to be helped, and not further beaten down. “Sorsby is currently ineligible to play for Texas Tech due to prior violations of the NCAA’s sports gambling rules.

Rather than support a student-athlete’s recovery from a gambling addiction, the NCAA has weaponized his condition to shore up a facade of competitive integrity,” a complaint by Sorsby’s legal team read, seeking an injunction against NCAA’s prohibition.

Other betting activity by Sorsby includes 50 bets placed on Indiana’s basketball team, for more than $1,400, and placing an additional 300 bets for a total of $6,500 on college football.

He also placed three bets on Cincinnati hoops at $3,500 in total, and he also paid $5,000 to a person to bet on NBA, MLB, and PGA Tour events for him while at Texas Tech.