Kayshon Boutte played sparingly in his NFL debut with the New England Patriots this past season. But now, the first-year wide receiver could be facing discipline by the league office following his arrest on Thursday.
Details on Kayshon Boutte’s Arrest Emerge
The rookie wide receiver out of LSU was arrested on Thursday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for illegal sports betting stemming from his time in college. Wilson Alexander of nola.com was the first to report.
Per Alexander, Boutte created a burner account to place wagers while on LSU’s campus.
“He allegedly placed more than 8,900 bets while underage with a fake account. Some of this occurred during the 2022 season, his last at LSU.”
Boutte ended up getting booked in Baton Rouge on the felony count of computer fraud, followed by a misdemeanor count of gaming prohibited by persons under the age of 21.
Police have told ESPN that the investigation is ongoing and that there could be additional charges for the sixth-round rookie, who caught only two passes for 19 yards and played in just five total games for the Patriots.
How Did Boutte Get Caught? LSU Beat Reporter Provides Context
Alexander provided more context into how Boutte was eventually caught. Among the revelations: the Tigers wide receiver used a different credit card belonging to a family member to help create the account.
“Arrest documents say that, on April 5, 2022, while still a player at LSU, Boutte opened a FanDuel account with a credit card in his mother’s name using another person’s name and birthday,” Alexander reported.
From there, Boutte began to receive additional money through FanDuel while using his first and last name as part of his username.
“In January, the account, which had the username ‘Kayshonboutte01,’ began to receive several deposits from that card, as well as hundreds of deposits from another credit card that listed Boutte as the payer, according to an affidavit,” Alexander shared.
Boutte’s FanDuel Involvement Continued Toward the Summer of ’23
According to the affidavit provided to Alexander, Boutte went on to add another account under his own name — but this time as an official NFL rookie.
“After Boutte opened a new account in Massachusetts in June under his own name, the company traced the credit card associated with it to the first account, the affidavit says, noting that Boutte turned 21 on May 7, 2023, therefore ‘making any wager placed by him prior to that date illegal.'”
Again, Boutte was discovered to have made nearly 9,000 wagers. Alexander says that Boutte placed the bets between April 2022 (while still a student at LSU) and May 2023 (following the NFL Draft).
Furthermore, the affidavit obtained by Alexander revealed that Boutte placed wagers on his own college football team.
“At least 17 of the bets were on NCAA college football games, and at least six involved LSU football,” Alexander wrote.
A couple more wagers involved Boutte throwing in his name as part of an eight-leg parlay.
“Two of them included bets on Boutte himself as part of an eight-leg parlay, in which a bettor wagers on multiple outcomes at once,” Alexander said.
And one of the bets Boutte made?
“Boutte bet that he would score a touchdown and get at least 82.5 yards against Florida State in the Sept. 4, 2022 game,” Alexander said.
He went on to finish with only two catches for 20 yards.
LSU and Patriots Make a Statement
The two teams associated with Boutte released statements on the matter.
“In July 2023, LSU was made aware of allegations regarding a former student-athlete’s improper conduct related to sports gambling while enrolled at the University,” LSU said Thursday.
“Since then, we have fully cooperated with all relevant authorities involved in the investigation and will continue to do so. We have no evidence that any other student-athletes participated in these prohibited activities, and we are grateful for measures that detect and discourage sports gambling related misconduct.”
Boutte has faced disciplinary actions before while at LSU. In 2021 he was handed a one-game suspension by the NCAA for receiving money during an autograph session over the summer. That was before the era of NIL (Name Image Likeness) took shape across college sports.
Meanwhile, the Patriots issued this statement that was obtained by ESPN:
“The New England Patriots are aware that Kayshon Boutte is cooperating with Louisiana police regarding their investigation into an underage gambling charge while he was a student at Louisiana State University.”
A Patriots spokesperson told ESPN that the team “was not anticipating any additional comments on the matter.”
KEEP READING: New England Patriots Depth Chart
Meanwhile, the league office is yet to comment on the matter. However, Boutte is likely to face league discipline, as he’s in violation of the NFL’s personal conduct policy.
Want to predict the results of the 2023 NFL postseason with our FREE NFL Playoff Predictor? How about looking into in-depth breakdowns of team depth charts or the NFL playoff schedule? Pro Football Network has you covered with all that and more!