NBA betting scandal links players, coaches and gamblers

NBA players, coaches and gamblers at the center of a federal betting probe

Four former or current NBA players are among dozens of people accused by federal prosecutors of taking part in interconnected illegal betting schemes tied to the league.

The investigation outlines alleged insider betting and rigged poker games involving players, coaches and organized gamblers, all linked through overlapping relationships and debts.

Overview of the NBA gambling scandal

NBA Gambling

The Faces of a Scandal

Four former or current NBA players are part of a large, interconnected group of people accused by the federal government of participating in an illegal betting scheme.

The federal investigation and key figures

The NBA players, coaches and gamblers at the center of a federal betting investigation

If there is a single takeaway from the ongoing NBA betting scandal, which is laid out in painstaking detail below through court documents, it is this:

Prosecutors say it’s all connected. The whole thing. The alleged insider trading and rigged poker games. The NBA players (current and former) and coaches. The gamblers. The accusations made of them are all linked, either directly or through a web reminiscent of an old corkboard in an FBI warehouse, covered in headshots with string.

On Oct. 23, FBI director Kash Patel and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella Jr. announced that 34 people were charged in separate illegal gambling schemes involving NBA personnel. Almost all of them have been arraigned and pleaded not guilty. The one exception, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, who is set to be arraigned in December, has denied the charges through his attorney.

How the alleged schemes are connected

Some of the organizers of the alleged rigged poker games who recruited or worked with Chauncey Billups and Damon Jones are the same people accused of manipulating NBA personnel, or conspiring with them, to use insider information for placing illegal bets.
One of the alleged masterminds of the poker games is a Gambino crime family associate who also reportedly turned Jontay Porter into a conspirator through pressure over a gambling debt.
A gambler who allegedly arranged teams of bettors to place bets on the insider information from at least three NBA teams is also accused of providing some of the technology used to rig the poker games.

Below is the web of these connections, showing how the federal government believes the four known NBA players and coaches accused of crimes — Billups, Jones, Porter and Terry Rozier — are connected to gamblers who allegedly placed the illegal bets and also allegedly rigged the card games.

Below is a diagram of how the alleged scheme involving Rozier, who is accused of removing himself from a game as a member of the Charlotte Hornets so he and a cabal of gamblers could win money off illegal bets, unfolded between him, his friend and his friend's gambling associates — according to prosecutors.

The four NBA figures at the center

Next, a refresher on the four names you know if you've been following the scandal at all — the four NBA players and coaches charged in the betting schemes. Attorneys for Rozier and Billups have denied the charges. Jones pleaded not guilty at an initial arraignment earlier this month.

Porter pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in July 2024.

The alleged organizers and wider network

Next are the gamblers who allegedly organized the two schemes, one to defraud wealthy card players in illegal poker games and the other to place illegal bets on information gleaned from NBA players and coaches. Their alleged participation in one or both schemes, and their reported connections to the others, are spelled out below. All have pleaded not guilty at November arraignments.

The final group is more mixed in terms of how intricately involved each person is alleged to be, with some only accused of being part of either the sports betting scheme or the poker games. All of the individuals in this group named in the charging document have pleaded not guilty.

Ongoing legal and league investigations

The two cases are now slowly working their way through the federal court system. The justice department has announced separate investigations into illegal gambling in professional baseball and college basketball as well.

The NBA is continuing its own investigation into the alleged illegal gambling; The Athletic reported last week that the league has asked multiple teams, including the Los Angeles Lakers, to hand over documents and other property as part of its investigation into illegal sports gambling.