nba
Ex-NBA player Ed Davis to plead guilty in sports betting case
Ed Davis signaled his intent to change his plea in a federal case alleging he bribed Malik Beasley to underperform during the 2023-24 season. Beasley agreed to plead guilty last week.
Former NBA player Ed Davis has signaled his intent to plead guilty in his federal sports betting case, according to a docket entry filed Friday, ESPN reported.
Davis, 37, initially pleaded not guilty to four federal charges including bribery in sporting contests and wire fraud conspiracy. The judge overseeing his case asked a federal magistrate to schedule a hearing for Davis to change his plea.
Prosecutors allege that Davis and Malik Beasley, another former NBA player, worked together in a sports gambling scheme that targeted at least four games during the 2023-24 season. Beasley, who was with the Milwaukee Bucks at the time, received bribes to deliberately underperform. The money was often used to reduce or pay off debts Beasley owed to Davis.
“Only way you can beat Vegas is sports betting,” Davis texted Beasley in December 2023, according to the indictment. “We can make some good money.”
Davis spent 12 years in the NBA with eight teams and was teammates with Beasley during the 2020-21 season. He last played in 2022 for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Beasley, who played nine seasons, agreed to plead guilty last week and is scheduled to formally change his plea Dec. 9.
Paolo Zamorano, Davis’ agent, is the only defendant in the case who has not pleaded guilty or signaled an intent to do so.
What the coverage missed
ESPN’s Tom Schad lays out the case clearly, but the scale of what is alleged deserves more attention. This is not a player betting on games from the sidelines. Prosecutors say Davis orchestrated a scheme to bribe an active NBA player to underperform in specific games, then used the betting proceeds to settle debts. That is game-fixing, or something close to it, and it is the thing every sports league fears most.
The text message to Beasley is damning. Davis was not ambiguous. He told Beasley that sports betting was the only way to beat Vegas, and they could make good money. Beasley was an active player on an NBA roster. If the allegations are true, the integrity of those four games was compromised.
Six defendants are charged. Five have now pleaded or signaled they will. The case is collapsing inward, and Zamorano is the last holdout. That suggests the government has the evidence it needs.
What I think
The NBA survived the Tim Donaghy referee scandal. It will survive this. But the league has spent the past decade embracing legalized sports betting, partnering with betting companies and building its in-game integrations around wagering. That decision brought revenue and fan engagement. It also created the infrastructure that Davis and Beasley allegedly exploited.
Every league that integrates with sports betting accepts a trade-off. The money is worth the risk, until it is not. This case is a reminder of where the risk lives: not with the betting public, but with the players who can move a line by missing a free throw or taking one fewer shot.