NBA's Billups, Rozier among dozens arrested in major US sports gambling probe
Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups during a break in the action against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Moda Center on Oct 22, 2025. (Photo: Reuters/Jaime Valdez)
NEW YORK: NBA head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were among more than 30 people charged on Thursday (Oct 23) in two sweeping US federal investigations into illegal gambling and organised crime.
The probes which centred on insider sports betting within the NBA and another involving rigged poker games. The schemes spanned several years and generated tens of millions of dollars in illicit profits, FBI Director Kash Patel said at a press conference in Brooklyn.
Rozier was one of several league insiders who allegedly provided non-public information about their performances to criminal associates, who then placed bets through intermediaries. In one incident in March 2023, Rozier told associates in advance that he would leave a game early with a supposed injury, allowing them to profit when he failed to reach his projected statistics, officials said.
“This is the insider trading saga for the NBA,” Patel said.
ORGANIZED CRIME AND RIGGED GAMES
Billups, a former NBA Finals Most Valuable Player and current coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, was charged in a separate case for allegedly helping to rig poker games that defrauded unknowing players. Prosecutors said the operation used fraudulent card shufflers and x-ray tables to cheat participants invited to play against celebrities.
The scheme allegedly involved several organised crime families which included the Bonanno, Gambino, Lucchese and Genovese clans. which took a cut of profits, used extortion to recover unpaid debts and laundered money through cryptocurrency and shell companies, according to prosecutors.
Some defendants were charged in both cases, including former Cleveland Cavaliers player and assistant coach Damon Jones, Brooklyn US Attorney Joseph Nocella said.
LEAGUE SILENT AS LAWYERS PUSH BACK
Representatives for the NBA, the Miami Heat and the Portland Trail Blazers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Rozier’s lawyer James Trusty said prosecutors were “taking the word of spectacularly incredible sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing,” adding that his client had already been cleared by the league.
SPOTLIGHT ON LEGAL GAMBLING BOOM
The arrests have intensified scrutiny of the relationship between professional sports and online betting, which has rapidly expanded in the United States in recent years.
Lawmakers have raised concerns about prop bets, wagers on individual player statistics that are more easily manipulated.
Former NBA player Jontay Porter was banned for life in 2024 for manipulating his performance to benefit associates’ bets, a case prosecutors said was linked to Thursday’s indictment.
Major League Baseball legend Pete Rose, banned in 1989 for betting on games, was reinstated earlier this year after US President Donald Trump urged the league to lift the lifetime ban.
COURT APPEARANCES EXPECTED
Billups, 49, is in his fifth season as Portland’s head coach. He played for seven NBA teams and won a championship with the Detroit Pistons in 2004, earning Finals MVP honours. He was due in court later Thursday in Portland.
Rozier, 31, was arrested overnight in Orlando, Florida, after the Heat’s game against the Magic and was expected to appear before a judge in the afternoon.
He had been under scrutiny for a March 2023 game after online sportsbooks flagged an unusual number of bets that he would go under his projected statistics. He left the game after only nine minutes, citing an injury.
