Former Iowa State tight end DeShawn Hanika wants college athletes to learn from his sports betting downfall after he was one of more than a dozen athletes from Iowa State and Iowa charged last year for tampering with records to place sports bets, according to the state’s investigation into sports wagering at the collegiate level.
Ex-Iowa State tight end DeShawn Hanika partnered with Integrity Compliance 360 to educate athletes on sports betting
Hanika missed the entire 2023 season and transferred to Kansas in December 2023. Ahead of the 2024 season, the 6-foot-6, 240-pounder has partnered with Integrity Compliance 360 (IC360), a technology company specializing in sports wagering integrity and compliance, to educate athletes on the consequences of ignoring betting rules.
IC360 uses software to send an alert when a player or other team member attempts to wager using a sportsbook. Hanika’s goal is to help other collegiate athletes to learn from his mistakes in sports wagering and prevent said athletes from losing eligibility or facing charges.
The majority of the collegiate athletes were accused of underage gambling. As for Hanika, the Kansas native registered accounts on mobile sports betting apps under a different name. Others were accused of betting on games they played in.
“If I can help one kid be like, ‘You know what? I haven’t been caught yet, but I’m not going to risk it,’ and stop, that’s good enough for me,” Hanika told Martenzie Johnson of Andscape in a recent interview.
Story County prosecutor’s office did not indict Hanika, misdemeanor tampering charge was dismissed
At the time he placed the wagers, Hanika thought he wasn’t doing anything wrong.
“I figured, I’m not betting on myself, [and] I’m not betting on my team. I am not hurting nobody,” he added. “I’m not getting in a car at 2 o’clock in the morning and driving home drunk and hitting anyone. I’m not going to hurt anyone sitting here doing this.”
Fortunately, the Story County prosecutor’s office did not indict Hanika. This came within 45 days after he waived a preliminary trial on Aug. 10. The misdemeanor tampering charge was dismissed on Oct. 2, 2023.
Around the time he tore his Achilles tendon, Hanika was approached by IC360 representatives about helping spread his message to college athletes who may be interested in sports wagering.
IC360 strives to help collegiate athletes’ gambling compliance problems from reaching state or federal level
IC360’s objective is to prevent problems with sports gambling compliance from reaching the level of a state prosecutor or the FBI.
“It ultimately is a three-way platform. The betting operations will monitor all the activity. A sports league or organization will essentially provide the database of the list of names and contact details of all of the prohibited bettors,” Mark Potter, co-managing director of education and training services for IC360, said.
“And as the tech solution we’ll monitor that and everything would feed into it from the operator, through the database, through us, and then it’s all encrypted and held on very safely.”
IC360 had been following what happened to Hanika and other athletes caught up in sports betting. The company was interested in partnering with him to educate individuals on the pitfalls of violating betting rules.
Hanika initially declined to participate. He thought the less he talked about it, the faster the story would disappear.
“I was still in that mindset of, if I can run from it, if I can keep my head down, maybe it’ll all go away,” he said.
Deshawn Hanika decided to join IC360’s program after initially refusing
However, Hanika’s mother and his wife convinced him to address the matter rather than run from it. They asked him how he wanted people to talk about it: only in negative terms or spin it into a positive.
Hanika said he had to put his pride to the side and attempt to help others avoid making the same mistake. Caving to this suggestion was his last resort to find peace.
“I had to swallow my pride a little bit, and that was a big step for me,” he said. “And just accepting that, yeah, I made a mistake. Here’s what I did, let me help someone else so they don’t go through this.”
The IC360 partnership is what the company calls the Gambling Awareness and Sports Integrity Program. In the program, Hanika created video content about his experiences with sports wagering. He also discussed the lessons he learned from getting charged, and the risks college athletes face by gambling.
“I think [he] really wanted to showcase how he took responsibility for what he did but also to showcase to young athletes how easy it is to get into and make those mistakes. [He wants to] prevent other people from doing the same thing that he did,” Potter said.
Hanika’s parents paid about $60,000 to fight his case last year
When Johnson asked Deshawn Hanika about his current stance on sports betting, he laughed and said he gets that question all the time. His gambling days are over.
“I can go the rest of my life without any stress of that ever again,” he said. “I could care less to ever see another commercial. [And I don’t ever want to] have it ever on my phone [to] place a bet. I could care less.”
When asked what he’d tell a college athlete interested in getting into sports betting, Hanika said he’s already been approached about it. He joked that he’d tell the person to give them his phone right then and there.
Hanika wouldn’t allow anyone near him to make such a life-changing mistake. He then told Johnson the dollar amount his mother and stepfather had to pay to fight his case last year.
“I’ve been like, you know, it’s not that big of a deal if your parents got $60,000 right now to drop on a lawyer,” Hanika said. “So, you let me know if that’s not that big of a deal.”
