Ex-NBA center Ed Davis intends to plead guilty in federal sports bribery case tied to Malik Beasley

Ed Davis, a 12-year NBA veteran and former teammate of Malik Beasley, is set to change his plea next month in a federal sports bribery case. For PSPs and sportsbooks, the useful bit is not the celebrity factor; it is that the complaint centers on alleged text coordination around prop betting, the exact kind of workflow that turns into monitoring, settlement, and integrity headaches.

1. According to court filings, Davis intends to plead guilty to federal sports bribery charges. He is scheduled to appear before US Magistrate Judge Taryn A. Merkl on 10 December for a change of plea hearing at a federal courthouse several miles from Barclays Center in Downtown Brooklyn.
2. Beasley is scheduled to appear before Merkl for a plea hearing one day earlier. Merkl joined the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York in 2021 and signed the order on Monday.
3. The federal complaint says Beasley and Davis communicated by text to allegedly coordinate a prop-fixing scheme. The two were allegedly working together during the 2023-24 season, when Beasley started 77 games for the Milwaukee Bucks.
4. Investigators reviewed additional communications tied to games against the Cavaliers, Hornets, Clippers and Nets over a two-month period through March 2024, court filings show. The texts cited in the complaint included Davis telling Beasley that the “only way you can beat Vegas is sports betting,” and that they could make “good money.”
5. Davis was the 13th pick in the 2010 NBA Draft, spent time with seven NBA teams, and finished his career with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2021-22. He also played one season with the Brooklyn Nets, averaging 8.6 rebounds per game in 17.9 minutes per game, and had signed a three-year, $20 million contract with the Portland Trail Blazers in 2015.

Beasley and Davis were teammates in Minnesota during the 2020-21 season. In that season, Beasley averaged a career-high 20.5 points per game before a February suspension tied to a guilty plea in connection with brandishing a weapon; he later joined the Bucks in July 2023 on a veteran minimum contract.