Image source, NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

Another one of the Five Families involved in the betting scheme is the Genovese family.

Following the establishment of the Commission - a board of directors made up of bosses from each of the Five Families - in the 1930s, Vito Genovese was made underboss, then acting boss, of the crime family that later inherited his name.

After Genovese fled to Italy in 1937 to avoid murder charges, Frank Costello took over for him on the American side. When Genovese returned to New York - following his extradition on murder charges, then eventual release after all witnesses were murdered - he got into a leadership dispute with Costello, but ultimately retained control.

In 1959, Genovese was convicted on drug trafficking charges, but retained some control from prison.

A top soldier in the Genovese family, Joe Valachi, became a government informer in 1962, affirming for the first time on record the existence of the Mafia.

The family has remained active in the last few decades, though a 2006 raid got over 30 members of the family convicted on racketeering charges.

Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu
US reporter

Image source, NBAE via Getty Images

The official NBA match report from 23 March, 2023 notes Terry Rozier, then a player for the Charlotte Hornets, left the game "with a sore right foot after scoring 5 points".

Rozier, 31, played for around only nine minutes at the game hosted by the New Orleans Pelicans. The injury set off alarm bells for some in the sports betting world and is now at the heart of federal illegal sports betting allegations against Rozier, who is now on Miami Heat's roster.

US officials allege Rozier tanked his performance by feigning that injury and told others about his plan before the game so that they could place winning bets worth thousands of dollars on his performance. "The proceeds were later delivered to his home, where the group counted their cash," New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.

One X account suggested his short-lived appearance on court was suspicious. "This is fishy," the sports betting account posted on 23 March. "No notice of an injury, or anything wrong all day long. Then, he only plays in [first quarter] and exits with an 'injury'... This one doesn’t feel right."

That same day, another X account asked a betting company to void bets placed on Rozier for that game and suggested betting companies were in on the act. "What a scam," the post said.

Earlier this year, the NBA says it was alerted to that incident for "unusual betting activity" but their internal investigation "did not find a violation of NBA rules".

An attorney for Rozier says his client denies the allegations and will fight the legal charges against him.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

The Bonanno family namesake is Joseph Bonnano, or Joe Bananas, who ruled the organisation for over 30 years, from the 1930s to the 1960s.

Bonanno helped the family profit from organised crimes that included loan-sharking, narcotics, prostitution, and gambling.

After Bonanno's tenure, an FBI agent named Jospeh Pistone infiltrated the group in the 1970s and remained undetected for years, inspiring the 1997 Al Pacino movie Donnie Brasco, named after Pistone's alias.

The Bonanno family lost its seat on the Five Families' commission after Pistone's operation led to more than 100 convictions.

In the 1990s, Bonanno boss Joseph Massino earned the family its seat back, but by the early 2000s, Massino became the first boss, external to work as an informant for the government.

We can now bring you a full statement from the NBA, which comes following today's arrests around illegal sports gambling:

“We are in the process of reviewing the federal indictments announced today.

Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups are being placed on immediate leave from their teams, and we will continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities.

We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority.”

The defendants are alleged to have committed fraud that involved tens of millions of dollars over many years - involving specialist equipment, game planning and information leaks.

Let’s take a look at some of the tactics they used:

• Fake injuries. Seven NBA games between February 2023 and March 2024 have been identified as part of the case. Players Terry Rozier and Damon Jones have been named as having been involved. One game from March 2023 has come under particular scrutiny as Rozier played roughly for only nine minutes because of a sore right foot – a stark contrast to his usual 35-minute average. Information such as this was allegedly known ahead of time to influence bets on the games

• Rigged poker games. In a separate but related case, 31 defendants are alleged to have participated in a scheme to rig poker games. The targeted victims were lured to play in rigged games with former professional athletes, unaware that everybody else including dealer and other players were in on the scam
• Altered contact lenses and x-ray tables. Special glasses and contact lenses were used to read pre-marked cards. An X-ray table was also used to read cards face down. At this point, the Mafia became involved and took a cut of the proceedings.

• Money laundering. The defendants have all been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. Illegal winnings were made through a scheme by betting on inside, non-public information about NBA athletes and teams

• Gun-point robbery. Officials say the suspects also allegedly committed acts of violence, including a gun-point robbery to obtain a rigged card-shuffling machine, and extortion against victims

We can now bring you a statement from an attorney representing the Miami Heat player Terry Rozier.

Attorney James Trusty denies the allegations against Rozier and says they are based on testimony from "spectacularly in-credible sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing".

Trusty also says his client will fight the legal charges.

Here is the full statement provided to CBS, the BBC's US partner.

Image source, Getty Images

House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries has been among the first politicians to react to the arrests.

Jeffries told CNN's The Situation Room: "It’s a stunning development. The indictment seems very wide-ranging. Of course, every single one of the individuals charged are entitled to the presumption of innocence.

"But it was a development that I think shocks the conscience of a lot of folks, particularly those who follow the NBA closely."

Jeffries also represents New York's 8th in the House of Representative which comprises a large portion of Brooklyn, where the arrests were announced.

He is a fan of the New York Knicks.

Image source, Getty Images

Terry Rozier - better known to some fans as 'Scary Terry' - is a current NBA player for Miami Heat.

The 31-year-old has played in the NBA since 2015 - before which he played college basketball at the University of Louisville.

He then was selected by the Boston Celtics - mostly as a reserve - before being traded into the Charlotte Hornets, and then eventually to Miami Heat in 2024.

Before a March 2023 game against the Charlotte Hornets - one officials were investigating whether Rozier manipulated his performance for illegal sports gambling - Rozier averaged 35 minutes of playing time and about 21 points per game.

Image source, Getty Images

The Gambino crime family , externalgets its name from Carlo Gambino, a Sicilian-born gangster who worked as a teenage hitman in Italy before moving to New York in 1921, aged 19.

After getting his start working for a few other criminal organisations, Gambino eventually became a founding member of one of the Five Families, at first known as Vincent Mangano's gang, but later named after Gambino himself. He is said to have inspired the title character in the movie The Godfather and died in 1976.

One of the most famous prosecutions of New York mob activity in the last few decades involved the Gambino family, and its notorious leader John Gotti, known as the "Teflon Don".

Gotti, who had seized control of the family by assassinating his predecessor, was convicted in 1992 for a slew of charges including racketeering and murder. He was sentenced to life in prison and died in 2002.

Then, in 2019, the Gambino family's reputed leader Frank Cali was shot to death outside his Staten Island home in the first targeted killing of a New York Mafia boss since Gotti ordered the murder of his previous boss.

Jonty Colman
BBC Sport Journalist

Given that the NBA has long seasons with matches every day and some teams playing on back-to-back days, there will be times and situations where teams will look to rest players.

For example, if a team is winning by a large number of points heading into the closing stages of a game, they may opt to rest their better players.

The same can be said in reverse. If a team is losing by a substantial number of points and it is deemed that their chances of winning from that position are incredibly low, they may also look to spare better players in order to rest them for upcoming games where they are more likely to have an impact.

Injuries also come into this. If a player is carrying an injury of some kind and a team deems that it is not worth the risk of extending that injury, they may opt to remove them from the game earlier than usual.

Should players or teams pre-plan any of these moves, which they are entitled to do, the leaking of any of this information can significantly impact betting markets.

Image source, Getty Images

Jones is a former NBA player who played for 10 different teams between 1997 and 2012.

The 49-year-old spent most of his 15-year career at the Cleveland Cavaliers as a combo guard.

He played college basketball at the University of Houston, before declaring early for the 1997 NBA draft - to which he went undrafted.

His career as a professional player came to an end in 2012. He became the Cavaliers' assistant coach between 2015 and 2018.

As a professional player, Jones became known as a skilled three-point shooter.

Jonty Colman
BBC Sport Journalist

In relation to the basketball betting investigation, the main markets mentioned during that FBI briefing were to do with player props.

In sports betting, specifically basketball in this case, props are where, ahead of a game, a bookmaker will give predicted values for a player based how they are likely to perform.

These include points, assists and rebounds, while other statistics in basketball can also be bet on. Bettors are offered the chance to bet on players to get over or under the prop given, which is intended be at a value which is likely to be even chance.

The pre-determined props are based on factors such as that individual player, their form, the level of the opposition, their skill set and also market movement.

For example, if a player has a points prop of 20.5 points, it means bettors will have the chance to bet on that player to score either more or less than 20.5 points in the match.

The case unveiled today involves members of New York's most notorious crime families, including the Bonanno, Genovese, and Gambino.

The Five Families - the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese - have ruled the city's Italian American mafia since 1931.

Major mob takedowns reduced the prevalence of mafia activity in the 1990s, aided by the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and then-mayor Rudy Giuliani. But, as today's indictments show, the mafia has not entirely gone away.

The Five Families are part of the larger American-Sicilian mafia operation known as La Cosa Nostra, which translates to "this thing of ours", and the members often work closely with their counterparts in Sicily.

On the Italian side, the gangsters consider New York City to be a "gym" where their members go to be toughened up, criminology professor and modern organised crime expert Anna Sergi, previously told BBC.

Sports betting has exploded in US since 2018published at 16:25 BST

16:25 BST

Natalie Sherman
New York business reporter

Sports betting was outlawed in most of the US from 1992 until 2018, when the Supreme Court turned regulation of the practice over to the states.

That didn’t mean it didn’t happen informally of course.

But since the federal ban was struck down, the practice has exploded, with major sports leagues and media companies making deals with gaming firms to get in on the action.

In the first eight months of the year, Americans wagered nearly $100bn on sports through official channels, up roughly 12% compared to 2023, according to the American Gaming Association.

The embrace of sports betting has been part of a broader shift in approach to gambling in the US, which for decades was largely limited to Native American lands and the Nevada’s Las Vegas strip.

Sports betting in particular was viewed with suspicion due to a 1919 baseball World Series match-fixing scandal. For years, many leaders of major sports leagues in the US opposed legalisation, worried it would erode trust in its games.

Image source, Reuters

We just heard from federal and local law enforcement officials after several US basketball figures, including a current coach and player, were arrested in two wide-ranging investigations involving the mafia.

Here are the major takeaways from the news conference:

• More than 30 people have been arrested in a sweeping investigation into fraudulent sports gambling and betting that began several years ago
• The investigations included alleged illegal and rigged gambling activities in which the perpetrators used special technology including contact lenses to read cards, manipulate shuffles, and communicate with others
• They enticed their victims with the prospect of playing alongside notable individuals including athletes, officials say
• Charges include wire and crypto fraud, money laundering, extortion, and armed robbery, officials says
• Another scheme involved players using privileged information to help others bet on their games
• In one case, NBA player Terry Rozier is suspected to have feigned an injury during a game, information he is alleged to have passed on before the game started
• Victims lost about $7 million (£5.2 million) in the schemes. One person lost over $1 million, officials say
• Officials says the National Basketball Association is cooperating and that college basketball games were not part of this investigation

Image source, Getty Images

Chauncey Billups, 49, has been head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers since 2021.

He was a star player in the NBA and played for several teams, but spent most of his career as a guard for the Detroit Pistons.

In 2004, he helped the Pistons win the NBA championship and was named that year's NBA Finals most valuable player.

He was inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame last year.

Jonty Colman
BBC Sport Journalist

Perhaps the most damning quote for Terry Rozier on this case came from Jessica Tisch.

"As the NBA season tips off, his career is already benched. Not for injury, but for integrity."

Nocella has just finished taking questions from reporters.

He says there is no indication that the sports books were involved in the illegal activity, and that they two were victims in the case.

He adds that the NBA has been cooperating with the probe.

With that, the news conference has ended, stay with us as we continue to bring you more updates and analysis.

Police Commissioner Tisch is describing the second operation in detail, emphasizing that involved notorious organised crime families.

She says the fact that four of the five major crime families were brought together in a single indictment is "extraordinarily rare".

This reflects how widespread the cheating scandal was, she says.

Tisch adds the "deliberate technologically sophisticated operation" involved one sole victim being cheated out of $1.8m.

When people refused to pay, the organised crime families used threats and intimidation to get people to hand over the money, she says.

The charges include robbery, extortion, wire fraud, bank fraud and illegal gambling.

New York City police commissioner Jessica Tisch says the defendants hid behind complexity, money and influence, believing it would shield them from accountability.

The first case is called "operation nothing but bet", she says, saying players and associates allegedly used insider information to manipulate bets on major platforms.

In some cases, players altered their performance or took themselves out of games to ensure those bets paid out, she says.

She says that on 23 March 2023, Terry Rozier, then playing for the Hornets, allegedly let others close to him know that he planned to leave a game early with a supposed injury.

Using that information, members of the group allegedly placed bets which paid off tens of thousands of dollars in profits, she says.

"As the NBA season tips off, his career is already benched, not for injury but for integrity," she says.