Ex-NBA player Beasley agrees to plead guilty in federal sports betting case

Former NBA player Malik Beasley has agreed to plead guilty in his federal sports betting case, his attorney, Steve Haney, told ESPN on Tuesday. Beasley, who played nine seasons in the NBA, is scheduled to change his plea at a Dec. 9 hearing in Brooklyn. He initially pleaded not guilty to four federal charges: conspiracy to commit wire fraud, bribery in sporting contests, honest services wire fraud conspiracy and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Haney told ESPN over the weekend that his client was in talks with prosecutors about a potential plea agreement and said Tuesday that a deal had been reached. He declined to specify the contours of the agreement. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of New York also confirmed an agreement had been reached but declined to comment on the specifics. Beasley, 29, is one of six defendants in the case, which alleges he coordinated with sports bettors to manipulate his statistics in at least four NBA games during the 2023-24 season. In the indictment, prosecutors claimed that Beasley, who was then playing for the Milwaukee Bucks, joined the scheme after accumulating "multimillion-dollar gambling losses." Beasley is the fourth defendant in the case to signal his intention to plead guilty. Former NBA player Ed Davis and Paolo Zamorano, who was Davis' agent, are the only two defendants who have yet to plead guilty as part of an agreement with prosecutors. ESPN's Shams Charania contributed to this report.