Alabama Baseball Gambler Bert Neff to Serve Eight Months in Prison

Bert Eugene Neff, who was linked with former Alabama baseball coach Brad Bohannon in a gambling scandal from a 2023 Crimson Tide baseball game against LSU, was sentenced to eight months in prison and three years of supervised release on Monday, per multiple reports.

The news comes nearly six months after the Indiana man reportedly pleaded guilty to one count of obstruction of justice.

Neff is the man who appeared at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati in April 2023 and attempted to place a large bet on eventual national champion LSU to beat Alabama on the diamond that night. This set off a sequence of events which began with a number of states’ sportsbooks ceasing to accept wagers on Crimson Tide baseball.

The former college baseball player was reported to have been communicating with former Crimson Tide head coach Brad Bohannon, who was fired on May 4 of last year, that day. The obstruction charge stems from attempted interference over the course of several months by Neff into the investigation surrounding the suspicious wagering. These actions include (but are not limited to) destroying his cell phone and encouraging others to do the same.

Bohannon’s firing took place less than one week after the game in question, wherein the Crimson Tide lost on the road at LSU. Neff’s purported activities also ended up causing problems at Cincinnati, where his son pitched last season. Two Bearcat staffers were let go last year, and contact with Neff was reportedly why, though an investigation into the program did not find sports wagering violations related to college baseball.

“Bert Eugene Neff is a professional gambler,” Edward Canter, assistant U.S. attorney, wrote in a sentencing memorandum for the case. “Faced with a federal grand jury investigation, he worked to game the system. The defendant destroyed evidence, tampered with witnesses, and provided false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He did not do this once. He did it on dozens of occasions, and he did so for the greater part of a year.”