Sports Integrity Team

The sports industry is facing an unprecedented wave of criminal investigations, enforcement actions, litigation, and complex compliance demands at all levels of competition. High-profile scandals and lawsuits in 2024 and 2025 have demonstrated that sports leagues, teams, universities, investors and athletes are under intense scrutiny from federal and state prosecutors, regulators, and the media. Steptoe's newly formed Sports Integrity Team brings together former federal prosecutors, higher education specialists, seasoned litigators, and compliance innovators to help clients navigate these complex challenges.

Risks span from exploitation of players and fans by outside money interests to institutional misconduct in a newly regulated NIL marketplace.

We advise leagues, teams, universities, athletes, investors and gaming platforms on:

• Internal investigations and compliance audits
• NIL marketplace deal structuring and regulatory reporting
• Title IX and other misconduct investigations
• Sports betting and gaming platform risk assessments
• Defending against civil and criminal proceedings and associated crisis management
• Financial crimes compliance and anti-fraud matters

A New Era of Enforcement in Sports

Recent developments highlight the diverse and serious risks facing the sports industry:

• High-Profile Betting & Fraud Scandals: Rapid growth of legal sports gambling platforms has led to self-dealing, fraud, and a predictable increased criminal enforcement. In late 2025, multiple major indictments alleged betting-related crimes across professional sports leagues, including wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, and bribery to influence sporting contests, among other crimes. Similarly, collegiate athletics programs have faced high-profile investigations into athletes betting on their own games.
• Corruption and Academic Fraud: The "Varsity Blues" case remains a benchmark, but new academic fraud schemes continue to emerge each year. Recently, the NCAA sanctioned a university after finding athletic staff had paid student-athletes on one team to complete coursework for players on another.
• Institutional Misconduct & Abuse: Institutions and organizations face significant legal and reputational risk for failing to address sexual misconduct and other abuses. For example, in 2025, federal prosecutors indicted a former University of Michigan and Baltimore Ravens football coach for allegedly hacking the databases of over 100 colleges to access athletes' private data and photos—leading to ongoing civil litigation and exposing new criminal conduct and data privacy vulnerabilities within athletic departments and sports teams.
• The Novel NIL Marketplace: The June 2025 House v. NCAA settlement introduced revenue sharing and created a complex regulatory landscape. The new College Sports Commission (CSC) and its "NIL Go" clearinghouse now require reporting for all deals over $600, opening the door for investigations into fair market value, improper inducements, and potential fraud by schools, collectives, and athletes.
• Oversight of Gaming Platforms: As legal sports gambling platforms proliferate, regulatory and prosecutorial expectations for proper oversight are rising. From KYC and AML processes to handling cryptocurrencies and novel digital assets, these platforms face and attract heightened scrutiny—even as they deploy technological solutions to combat fraud in the sports arena.
• Student-Athlete Eligibility Requirements: Given the new economic incentives for student-athletes to extend their college athletic careers in the aftermath of the House settlement, schools and athletes must navigate the antitrust implications of the various NCAA, Conference-specific, and school-specific rules imposing limitations on how long student-athletes can compete at the collegiate level.  
• Arbitration's Influence in Enforcing Regulatory Standards: Arbitration is becoming a primary forum for resolving non-criminal allegations about integrity issues like doping and gambling, as well as other commercial and disciplinary disputes. This includes domestic systems like MLB's arbitration process and international bodies like the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which arbitrates disputes related to the Olympics and World Cup.

"Steptoe has a deep bench of attorneys with experience guiding clients through major investigations and litigation related to the integrity of sports," said Gwen Renigar, Steptoe's Chair. "Our team also develops and implements compliance programs for our sports and gambling clients, leveraging the latest in artificial intelligence (AI) offerings and FinTech payment program innovations. Given the increasing enforcement focus in this area, now is an opportune time for a dedicated task force to help our clients navigate through these fast-developing issues." 

Our Team 

To address these risks, Steptoe LLP has launched the Sports Integrity Team to help professional sports leagues, teams, coaches, athletes, gambling platforms, higher education institutions, and collectives proactively evaluate and mitigate risks, ensure full compliance with applicable laws, respond to government inquiries, and navigate investigations, lawsuits, and any criminal actions.

Steptoe's team includes former federal prosecutors with specific experience in sports integrity investigations, FinTech and crypto specialists, former college administrators, and higher education specialists, among others.

The Team has extensive experience:

• Conducting internal investigations and audits to assess compliance with applicable laws and provide risk-mitigation advice.
• Advising on new contracts and funding arrangements, including in rapidly developing areas like the NIL marketplace and sports-related crypto ventures.
• Representing institutions, entities, and individuals in response to government investigations, grand jury subpoenas, and criminal prosecutions.
• Navigating the complex parallel demands of internal investigations, civil litigation, government enforcement, and public relations crises.

The Team also has a long history of advising companies, universities, athletes, and other stakeholders on issues at the intersection of sports and law.

Steptoe will provide analysis and updates regarding the federal enforcement landscape and new requirements on an ongoing basis. For more information, please contact any of the Team members.