Betting on the NFL Draft has always involved trying to figure out which anonymous scout, agent, or guy with 14 followers actually knows something. The Arizona Cardinals selecting Jeremiyah Love third overall has now turned that annual information circus into something considerably more serious, with gaming regulators in two states investigating unusual wagering activity.
Massachusetts has joined Arizona in examining betting connected to the situation surrounding suspended Cardinals scouting executive Ryan Gold, according to an ESPN report. The investigations arrived after Love’s odds to go No. 3 moved from 30-to-1 in March to roughly 2-to-1 two days before the draft, while DraftKings reported that no other player in that market attracted more bets or money.
The Jeremiyah Love Betting Market Went Completely Nuts
Jeremiyah Love going third was not some impossible football outcome.
The former Notre Dame running back was one of the best players in the draft, and his stock had been rising publicly before Arizona was on the clock. Betting markets move when mock drafts change, rumors circulate, and enough people decide the same information sounds convincing.
Still, moving from 30-to-1 to 2-to-1 is the kind of swing that gets considerably more interesting when the NFL later accuses someone inside the organization making the pick of sharing confidential draft information.
The NFL announcement said its investigation determined Gold provided confidential, non-public information concerning Arizona’s 2026 draft selections before those picks were announced. The league also determined that he participated in parlays involving NFL and college football games and suspended him indefinitely in July.
Gold is appealing that suspension.
His attorney, Mike Caspino, has denied the allegations and argued that Gold did not know Arizona’s selections ahead of time. He has also maintained that the $10 weekly parlays at issue were placed by Gold’s wife with a group of high school friends and did not involve him.
So there is a fairly enormous difference between “the betting line moved” and “somebody moved it using leaked information.”
That is exactly what makes the regulatory investigations important.
Draft Betting Has A Pretty Obvious Information Problem
Unlike betting on an actual NFL game, there is no injury report or box score determining whether the Cardinals take Love.
There are conversations happening inside one building.
Arizona general manager Monti Ossenfort said after the draft that the organization settled on Love at the start of draft week. Meanwhile, sportsbooks were taking real money on something only a tiny number of people could definitively know before Roger Goodell walked onto the stage.
That setup has always made NFL Draft betting uniquely weird.
A bettor does not necessarily need to know football better than everyone else. He might just need to know the right person.
There is currently no public finding that Gold caused the Love line movement, that the unusual Massachusetts wagers came from information he allegedly shared, or that anyone connected to him profited from the No. 3 market. Both state investigations remain open, and his appeal hearing is scheduled for Sept. 23.
But the situation has already moved well beyond an employee breaking an internal gambling rule.
A Cardinals draft pick went from a 30-to-1 long shot to nearly even money, the executive responsible for helping scout college players was suspended over alleged non-public draft information, and now two gaming regulators want a closer look.
NFL Draft season might need something stronger than a Community Note.