Much like some other southern states in the USA, nothing but bad Alabama betting news has been coming in. This included the state not being able to push forward with legalization efforts, as Alabama remains one of 11 states where there's no legal form of sport betting. Well, things are only made worse with the latest update coming in of Alabama rocked by a sports betting scandal at the worst time possible.

According to multiple reports, four former Alabama State basketball athletes have been accused of 'fixing a game' back during the 2024-25 season. Per those same reports, the four players were shaving points in a matchup against Southern Miss. Those players have been confirmed to be Amarr Knox, Shawn Fulcher, Corey Hines, and Tony Madlock, with people sending them thousands of dollars to impact the outcome of the game.

“Nothing that (the NCAA) put out is true,” Madlock said in trying to deny any wrongdoing in this case. “I was added to a group chat, but I never responded to anyone’s texts. Why would I respond, knowing I wouldn’t be playing? Also, why would somebody pay me for sitting on the bench? That doesn’t even make any sense.”

It goes without saying, but this is a major black eye for Alabama, as the last thing the state is ever going to want is to be included in illegal activity of this magnitude. Having said that, it will be interesting to see if this delays the sports betting push at all, especially since non-pros have been involved in this case. From our chair, it indeed could give the opposition to sports betting even more ammo to push against things getting the green light down the road.

Alabama's latest sports betting push fell flat on its face

To make matters worse for the state, Alabama's latest sports betting push fell flat on its face. Back during the spring months, there was a last-minute push in Alabama during the legislative session to try and get things approved. Instead of that happening, though, things stalled, and now things are back to the drawing board in terms of waiting to see when things might be able to push forward.

The main concern that keeps popping up is that lawmakers and officials seem to be quite concerned about addiction and sports betting impacting young men and women. That's why this latest scandal could very well end up delaying things as a whole. If Republicans in the state were already worried about betting problems for young people, imagine the reaction to things with a betting scandal of this magnitude reaching a college campus.

For now, officials are going to have to work towards finding a new sports betting bill that's going to make sense on both sides. However, it also is going to have to be one that protects youngsters from having too much access to potential betting. If that doesn't get developed, more people opposed to sports betting might voice their displeasure.

Prediction markets are the ones benefitting from no legal sports betting in Alabama

As you might have been able to guess, prediction markets are the ones benefitting from no legal sports betting in Alabama, which should never be the case. Just like in Georgia, Texas, California and other states without legal betting options, places like Kalshi, PolyMarket, and others have emerged as favorite apps for users for their sports betting needs.

This is something to keep a close eye on for when football season gets here, as people in Alabama surely love the action on the gridiron. While there's no pro team in the area, people in Alabama seem to be drawn to NFL betting through the Atlanta Falcons, who aren't too far over in Georgia. Because of that, the overall interest in the NFL each weekend continues to be on the rise, which in turn leads to betting interest.

As things stand, though, the only bets that can be made are NFL futures bets through those prediction markets, and nothing is going to change there until legalization arrives. It's totally up in the air when that's going to happen, which is good news for the prediction markets, but bad news for Alabama as a whole.