Former NBA player Malik Beasley is expected to surrender to authorities after being indicted on federal sports gambling charges, in a case that has drawn fresh attention to the relationship between professional athletes and the betting industry. Through his attorney, Beasley maintains his innocence and is set to face the allegations in court.
According to prosecutors, the charges accuse Beasley of tailoring how well he played so that sports gamblers could win hundreds of thousands of dollars. The indictment frames the alleged scheme as a deliberate manipulation of his own on court output, with bettors positioned to profit from advance knowledge of how he would perform.
Prosecutors say Beasley, who earned about 60 million dollars during his NBA career, accumulated multi million dollar gambling losses. To pay off what he owed to former teammate Ed Davis, he allegedly agreed to underperform and at times to overperform, adjusting his play to match the bets being placed against the sportsbooks' expectations.
One example cited in the indictment involves a 2024 game between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Clippers, in which Beasley is said to have promised to grab more rebounds than the sportsbooks had predicted. Authorities allege that co defendants then collected thousands of dollars from insider bets tied to that kind of inside information.
The indictment also quoted text messages said to have been exchanged between Beasley and Davis, who is likewise facing charges. In the messages, Davis allegedly wrote that the only way to beat Vegas is through sports betting, arguing that the house holds the edge in everything else, to which Beasley reportedly responded in agreement.
Officials described the case as the latest in a broader crackdown on illegal sports betting and the athletes who allegedly take part in it. The prosecution signals continued scrutiny of how inside information can be exploited in a rapidly expanding legal betting market, where the integrity of individual performances is closely watched.
Beasley's attorney reiterated that his client denies wrongdoing as the case moves forward. The reporting on the allegations was presented by ABC's Aaron Katursky from New York, where the indictment was brought, and Beasley is expected to turn himself in to authorities as the legal process begins.