Ed Davis was due to be arraigned on Tuesday in the widening federal gambling case tied to Malik Beasley, with prosecutors accusing the former NBA player of helping steer Beasley’s on-court performance so bettors could profit from prop wagers.
The case is part of a six-defendant indictment charging bribery in sporting contests, wire fraud conspiracy, honest-services wire fraud conspiracy and money-laundering conspiracy. U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. described the alleged schemes as having “turned professional basketball into a criminal betting operation” and said they eroded the integrity of American sports.
The central accusation is that Davis, who had been teammates with Beasley on the Minnesota Timberwolves during the 2020-21 season, first built a financial relationship with him and then used it as leverage. Prosecutors say Davis loaned Beasley money, then pressed him to underperform in games so that bettors could target Beasley’s individual stat lines.
The alleged arrangement was carried through messages and intermediaries. In one exchange, Davis wrote, “Only way you can beat Vegas is sports betting. Everything else they got the edge,” and urged Beasley to move the conversation to Snapchat. He also told Beasley, “We can make some good money.”
According to the indictment described in the reports, Davis later told co-conspirators that he could get Beasley to engage in spot-fixing whenever he wanted. He also told them about Beasley after getting assurance that the player would underperform, and the group then placed wagers totalling tens of thousands of dollars on Beasley’s prop markets.
The betting activity cited in the case spans several games in early 2024. On January 26, Beasley allegedly agreed to underperform on rebounds for a Milwaukee Bucks game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. He finished with three rebounds, below a line of 3.5.
Five days later, there was a surge of bets on Beasley to record fewer than 2.5 rebounds against the Portland Trail Blazers. The odds on the under moved from around +120 to around -250, before Beasley finished with six rebounds.
On March 10, in a Bucks game against the Los Angeles Clippers, the rebounds line was set at 3.5. Beasley had three rebounds going into the final seconds, then grabbed the ball on the last play to make sure wagers won. Prosecutors highlighted more than $5,000 in bets on him to record at least four rebounds.
The scheme was said to have broken down on March 21, when Beasley finished with six rebounds against the Brooklyn Nets, above the betting line. Bets on the under lost, and one report said the group later celebrated a win after the Clippers game before turning on one another, with Ernesto Plascencia accusing Paolo Zamorano of ruining the plan.
The reports say Beasley had been under investigation since June 2025 over suspicious betting activity on his prop markets. They also say he had accumulated multi-million-dollar gambling losses and had been evicted from his Detroit apartment after failing to pay rent, with one message showing him saying he was “Trying to find like 2k” and would try to pay in full on the first.
By contrast, Davis had been out of the NBA since 2022 and was described by PBS NewsHour as a journeyman backup over a 12-year career that brought him roughly $48 million in gross salary. Beasley later played for the Detroit Pistons in 2024-25, averaged 16 points, and had not played in the NBA since the investigation, though he briefly played in Puerto Rico earlier this year.
Beasley pleaded not guilty. Davis was due to enter a plea later on Tuesday, and had not commented at the time of the report. The case sits alongside other gambling and corruption prosecutions that have swept up former players, a current player agent and, in separate cases, figures including Damon Jones, Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups.
