Investigation Into Separate Allegations of Wrongdoing Ongoing
NEW YORK – The National Hockey League announced today that it had concluded its investigation of allegations that San Jose Sharks forward Evander Kane gambled on League games, having found no evidence to support those allegations, or allegations that Mr. Kane made any effort to negatively impact his own Club’s games.
The extensive investigation of the allegations, which were made in social media posts by Mr. Kane’s wife Deanna, was conducted by Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP in conjunction with NHL Security.
The report states: “The investigation included a detailed review of social media, public data, and court filings from the bankruptcy proceeding initiated by Mr. Kane in January 2021 and his pending divorce proceeding; a review of sports betting data and analysis; and in person and virtual interviews of members of the Sharks organization and others, including Mr. Kane. It should be noted that Ms. Kane refused to participate in the investigation.
“The investigation uncovered no evidence to corroborate Ms. Kane’s accusations that Mr. Kane bet or otherwise participated in gambling on NHL games, and no evidence to corroborate the allegations that Mr. Kane ‘threw’ games or did not put forward his best effort to help the Sharks win games. To the contrary, the evidence raises doubts about the veracity of the allegations.
“While Mr. Kane denied the accusations, our findings are not based on these denials but instead on other evidence uncovered during the investigation.
The investigators analyzed relevant gambling information provided by Sportradar, a leader in the fields of sports data collection and analysis.
“We requested and received from Sportradar bet monitoring reports and analyses on Sharks games from the latter part of the 2018-19 season, including the 2019 Playoffs, and the 2020-2021 season.”
The report concludes: “Our review of public and non-public documents relating to Mr. Kane, including data and analysis from a leading sports integrity service, and our interviews of those individuals most familiar with Mr. Kane’s on-ice performance over the past three seasons yielded no evidence to corroborate Ms. Kane’s allegations that her husband gambled on NHL games or ‘threw’ hockey games.”
Additional unrelated allegations, however, involving potential wrongdoing by Mr. Kane have been brought to our attention. These allegations are being thoroughly investigated and the National Hockey League will have no further comment regarding their substance pending completion of that process.
While reserving the right to investigate any new information that might arise relating to the gambling allegations, the National Hockey League now considers that specific matter closed.
