Lynnae Williams Journalist
Lynnae is a journalist covering the intersection of technology, culture, and gambling. She has more than five years of experience as a writer and editor, with bylines at SlashGear and MakeUseOf. On the iGaming side,...
Read Full BioAs the NCAA championship season gets underway, the association has announced that it is bringing on IC360 and its ProhiBet system to monitor officials working the Division I tournaments, including men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, and softball.
The rollout of IC360 technology will begin with March Madness, which starts with the men’s First Four on March 17-18 and the women’s First Four on March 18-19. Under the agreement, the NCAA will use ProhiBet to monitor championship officials for prohibited wagering activity.
In the March 10 press release announcing the partnership, the NCAA framed the move as an important addition to its larger integrity program. IC360, for its part, describes ProhiBet as a monitoring tool designed to identify prohibited betting activity by people subject to wagering restrictions, including athletes, coaches, staff, and officials.
In response to the announcement, NCAA Managing Director of Enforcement Mark Hicks said, “Implementing ProhiBet is a major step in increasing integrity protections for college sports. This platform adds another layer to the NCAA’s robust integrity monitoring program as we work to keep competition integrity and student-athlete well-being paramount in a rapidly evolving sports betting environment.”
The NCAA’s decision to enlist IC360 comes amid intense scrutiny of integrity protocols sports leagues use following a wave of betting scandals, with the public questioning whether they can police their own contests as legalized betting continues to expand across the United States.
Partnership Adds Officials to NCAA Integrity Monitoring
The target group for this new initiative stands out: the NCAA is moving away from a self-reported “honor system” for officials and replacing it with automated detection tools.
Up until now, the NCAA has typically focused its betting integrity efforts on athletes, coaches, and staff, but this new partnership extends that net to officials assigned to some of the association’s most visible events.
The timing of the announcement is also notable because the NCAA is implementing these new measures right before March Madness, the most active betting period on the U.S. sports calendar.
In an interview with CasinoBeats, former DraftKings sportsbook operations manager Matthew Bakowicz said he expects about $4.5 billion to be wagered nationwide during the tournament.
The men’s and women’s tournaments will run through early April, giving the NCAA a chance to test the effectiveness of the new monitoring measures across two of its highest-profile championships.
IC360 Already Has History in NCAA Betting Alerts
IC360 isn’t new to NCAA betting oversight. Even before federal prosecutors unsealed the indictment in the NCAA point-shaving scandal in January 2026, the company was linked to alerts on unusual wagering involving college basketball games.
In 2024, IC360 (operating as U.S. Integrity) flagged unusual line movement during a Temple-UAB game when the betting spread shifted by six points in one day, even though there weren’t any injuries or updates to the roster. It was that digital trail that helped launch the federal probe in what would become one of the biggest betting scandals to hit college sports.
Ultimately, the investigation resulted in federal charges against 26 individuals, including 20 current or former players and six “fixers.” Prosecutors found that “fixers” recruited 39 players across 17 different Division I schools, including Tulane, Buffalo, DePaul, and Saint Louis, to manipulate the outcomes of nearly 30 games between 2023 and 2025.
Beyond that scandal, the NCAA has publicly acknowledged the role of an integrity monitoring service, although it didn’t name IC360, in helping it detect suspicious betting activity in a Mississippi Valley State case, leading to infractions against the players involved.
However, even with integrity monitoring in place, experts like Declan Hill warn that it’s not enough. In an interview with CasinoBeats, Hill said, “They’re still missing most of the stuff. Those monitoring the betting patterns help some of the time, but they really only catch the stupid fixes.”
