January 12, 2023, 8:15 PM ET
According to a recent report, James Krause was a former UFC fighter who also served as a Glory MMA & Fitness Coach. He is currently under investigation for a betting fraud.
ESPN published a long report Thursday that claimed anonymous sources said they placed wagers through Krause who was an agent of ABCBetting.ag at least since 2019. Sources claimed Krause provided a credit line and referee kickbacks and accepted payments via Venmo and Paypal.
Indefinite suspensions were imposed by the Nevada Athletic Commission in Las Vegas (NAC), in order to prevent Krause and two other UFC-rostered fighters Darrick Minner, Jeff Molina, from fighting in any future UFC matches. After suspicious betting activity was detected in a Nov. 5, Krause and Minner were both suspended.
To finish the fight, Minner received an unusual number of bets on Shayilan Nuerdanbieke. Minner appeared quickly to have injured his leg during Round 1. Minner quickly appeared to injure his leg during Round 1. He was soon finished with strikes.
Multiple North American gaming commissions stopped wagering on UFC events after the fight. Multiple investigative agencies may also have been involved.
Minner was immediately released by his contract. The UFC banned fighters in December from training or associating themselves with Krause. Molina was due to fight on Jan. 14. He was then suspended for several weeks.
Krause is yet to respond. Minner, when he was contacted by ESPN recently denied any unusual circumstances pre-fight. However, he did admit to having suffered minor injuries in his knee prior to the fight. Minner declined to discuss Krause’s possible involvement in the sportsbooks.
Krause had admitted that he bet on fights before the UFC implemented anti-wagering language. This was according to The MMA Hour. Krause stated that he had taken over accounts of other punters in an attempt to avoid betting limits.
Krause created a podcast called “1% Club”, which covered picks, predictions, and betting. On Discord, he had an “1% Club” subscription-based chat room. The Thursday report said that Molina joined Discord, and encouraged other members to do the same.
Molina wrote that he has been trained with a lot fighters and lives and breathes the sport of MMA as a fighter coach/fighter. This is insider trading in stocks. In MMA betting, it’s James Krause. Krause’s picks have paid all of my bills, including the mortgage and car loan. Join the VIP club to do yourself a favour.
NAC’s next round of hearings will be held Tuesday, February 11, in Las Vegas. The agenda includes Molina and an unnamed Confidential Respondent.