Malik Beasley Is Moving to Plead Guilty. The NBA’s Betting Scandal Now Has a Second Player.
A court notice filed overnight into Saturday indicated that Malik Beasley intends to plead guilty in the federal sports-betting case against him, ESPN reported. The judge had asked a federal magistrate in Brooklyn late Friday to schedule a change-of-plea hearing.
Nothing is signed. ESPN and CBS Sports both report that Beasley’s lawyers are still negotiating with Justice Department prosecutors and that a decision is expected early in the coming week. His attorney, Steve Haney, told the Associated Press that talks are ongoing “with an expected direction in the coming days.”
If it happens, Beasley becomes the second NBA player to plead guilty in a betting-corruption case, after Jontay Porter in 2025.
What He Is Actually Charged With
Beasley, 29, was indicted on June 29, 2026 on four counts: bribery in sporting contests, wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. He pleaded not guilty in New York federal court in July.
Prosecutors allege he manipulated his own statistics in at least four games during the 2023-24 season, when he played for Milwaukee, so that co-defendants could cash prop bets. According to the indictment, those co-defendants picked games that were not nationally televised, and Beasley chose whether to overshoot or undershoot his scoring and rebounding lines. The indictment references his multimillion-dollar gambling losses.
Two specific games are cited. On March 10, 2024 against the Clippers, prosecutors obtained texts in which co-defendants celebrated after Beasley shoved a teammate to secure a rebound with 1.1 seconds left. On March 21, 2024 against the Nets, he again cleared his rebounding line, and co-defendants demanded a refund from a go-between. That is reportedly when the scheme came apart.
Those remain allegations. Beasley has not admitted to any of it, and until a plea is entered and accepted, that is where the record stands.
The Case Is Collapsing Around Him
Six people were charged. William Brown pleaded guilty earlier this month. Robert Gorodetsky has a guilty plea scheduled for Nov. 20. Ernesto Plascencia was ordered to change his plea, and his attorney confirmed Saturday that he will plead guilty. Former NBA player Ed Davis, described by prosecutors as a lender and gatekeeper, and sports agent Paolo Zamorano, 39, have both pleaded not guilty.
When four of your five co-defendants have folded, the leverage in the room belongs entirely to the other side. Haney said in June that “an indictment is nothing but a probable cause one-sided charging document.” That was a reasonable thing for a defense attorney to say in June. It is a much harder position to hold in late October.
This Is Not an Isolated Case Anymore
Beasley last played in the NBA for Detroit in 2024-25 on a one-year, $6 million deal, across nine seasons and six teams. He is out of the league, which makes it easy to file this away as somebody else’s problem.
It is not. Terry Rozier has pleaded not guilty in a separate case. Chauncey Billups and Damon Jones were arrested in an illegal poker-ring case, and Jones also faces illegal sports betting charges. Neither the NBA nor the league office issued a statement on Beasley’s plea talks on Saturday.
The league spent years selling betting partnerships on the premise that integrity monitoring would catch anything that mattered. What actually caught this was a group of bettors arguing over a refund. That is the part the NBA should be losing sleep over, and no plea agreement is going to fix it.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
