- Less than a year after being “cleared” from a sports betting investigation, NBA veteran Malik Beasley was indicted on federal gambling charges.
- Beasley and former NBA veteran Ed Davis are just the most recent indictments of a league-wide issue, created by the legalization of player prop betting.
- Individualized prop markets have never existed at the scale in which they do now, and the NBA profits from those offering these markets while their players fall to the systemic crisis.
DETROIT – Malik Beasley and Ed Davis’s Monday indictment on federal gambling charges are just the latest mark on an unmistakable systemic crisis within the NBA and all professional sports leagues in America . The advancement of legal sports betting since 2018 has led to sportsbooks offering roughly 200 individualized player props per game, creating a new and simple exploit that a handful of NBA players have attempted.
This is no longer the “point-shaving” scheme from the 1990s. Players don’t even need to throw the game anymore, all they need to do is just pass up a few open shots or get substituted out early to help criminal bettors wagering on the unders.
That’s how it went down in the recent Malik Beasley betting probe, but it goes back further than that. The prop betting exploit was seen in 2023 with Terry Rozier, who was put under investigation from a March 2023 game where he subbed out early in cooperation in an illegal gambling scheme.
Next was Jontay Porter, who was banned from the NBA for life after intentionally going under his projections to help bettors who wagered on his under for three-pointers made across multiple games. Then 34 people, including Rozier, Chauncey Billups, and Damon Jones were indicted in connection with illegal gambling schemes in relation to organized crime.
All Sports Betting Schemes Caught By Sportsbooks, Not NBA
Aside from each instance stemming from player prop manipulation, the most glaring similarity between all these cases is that the NBA can’t police their own product. Every case was flagged by sportsbooks for unusual line movement, but if these crimes are being detected from outside the league, how can the NBA endorse sportsbooks and betting props?
The NBA is partnered with FanDuel and DraftKings, but there are roughly 10 sports betting operators that have partnerships with the league. If the league cracks down on how fans can bet on NBA games like banning player props, they’ll lose money and market share. But if they continue operating as they are, more instances of player prop manipulation and a growing number of indictments will follow.
