Two former professional basketball players, Malik Beasley and Ed Davis, were hit with federal indictments Monday as part of an alleged illegal sports betting scheme.
The pair are two of six individuals named in charges brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
Davis was taken into custody Monday alongside three other defendants — William Brown, Rob Gorodetsky, and Ernesto Plascencia. As of Monday morning, Beasley and Paolo Zamorano had not yet been arrested. Zamorano is currently working as an NBA player agent.
According to the indictment, Beasley racked up millions of dollars in gambling losses throughout his nine-year NBA career, during which he played for six different teams between 2016 and 2025. Prosecutors allege that ahead of at least three games during the 2023-24 season with the Milwaukee Bucks, Beasley agreed to deliberately alter his on-court performance so that his alleged co-conspirators could place winning bets on his individual statistics.
The indictment further alleges that Beasley accepted bribes as a way to reduce or eliminate debts he owed to Davis. The two had been teammates on the Minnesota Timberwolves during the 2020-21 season. Davis himself played 12 seasons across eight NBA teams from 2010 to 2022.
Text messages cited in the indictment show Davis reaching out to Beasley in December 2023, writing: “Only way you can beat Vegas is sports betting… We can make some good money.”
About a month after that exchange, Beasley reportedly told Davis he planned to put up weak rebounding numbers in a January 26, 2024, matchup between the Bucks and the Cleveland Cavaliers. He ended up grabbing just three rebounds in that game — below the 3.5 rebound betting line offered at some sportsbooks.
The indictment states that “defendants and their co-conspirators placed numerous fraudulent wagers totaling tens of thousands of dollars conditioned on defendant Malik Beasley’s ‘under rebounds’ prop bets.”
By midday Monday, the NBA had not issued any public comment regarding the indictments.
Beasley, selected in the first round of the 2016 NBA Draft by the Denver Nuggets, took home nearly $60 million over the course of his professional career, which wrapped up in 2025. Davis, a first-round pick by the Toronto Raptors in 2010, earned just under $47 million during his playing days.
