Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, at the centre of the NBA gambling case, is set to appear in a New York federal court on 8 December (Monday). Rozier faces allegations that he helped gamblers place profitable bets on his in-game performance, the latest development in what has become one of the largest sports integrity investigations in NBA history.
The 31-year-old will be formally arraigned in Brooklyn on wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges. He is also scheduled to join five co-defendants for a pre-trial hearing later in the day, according to AP News.
Rozier previously appeared before a federal judge in Orlando on 23 October, where prosecutors first unsealed the indictment. He was released under conditions. His lawyer, Jim Trusty, has strongly denied wrongdoing, insisting Rozier is “not a gambler” and “looks forward to winning this fight.”
Federal prosecutors allege Rozier conspired with friends to manipulate betting markets by leaking that he planned to leave a March 2023 Charlotte Hornets game early due to a supposed injury. According to the indictment, the information enabled bettors to place “performance unders” that returned tens of thousands of dollars.
Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier (Source: AP News)
Rozier played just nine minutes and 36 seconds against the New Orleans Pelicans before exiting with a reported foot issue. He did not return for the rest of the season. According to AP News, Rozier, who has earned an estimated $160 million across a decade-long NBA career, maintains his innocence.
Rozier is among more than 30 individuals arrested in a sprawling federal investigation linked to illegal sports betting and rigged high-stakes poker games, some allegedly tied to members of the Genovese, Gambino and Bonanno crime families.
He is also one of three current or former NBA figures implicated alongside Chauncey Billups, Portland Trail Blazers head coach and Damon Jones, former NBA player and coach. Both Billups and Jones are on unpaid leave as the cases proceed.
As previously reported by Bloomberg, Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups pleaded not guilty on 24 November to charges linking him to rigged, Mafia-backed poker operations. Prosecutors claim the games used high-tech cheating methods, X-ray poker tables, hidden cameras and altered card shufflers, while crime family enforcers handled extortion and debt collection.
Billups was allegedly used as a “face card” to attract wealthy participants to games held in the Hamptons, Miami, Las Vegas and Manhattan. Billups has vowed to “fight these allegations with the same tenacity” he showed on the court.
Former NBA player and assistant coach Damon Jones also pleaded not guilty earlier this month to wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. Prosecutors allege Jones sold non-public injury information about LeBron James and Anthony Davis, encouraged bettors to place high-value wagers before injury news became public, has paid to participate in rigged poker games and used coded messages such as “Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out.”
In one case, Jones allegedly accepted $2,500 for information on Davis’ playing time before a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, information that turned out to be inaccurate.
The NBA has launched one of its most wide-ranging investigations in decades. According to ESPN and The Athletic, the league has requested mobile phones and digital records from individuals across several franchises, contacted around a dozen Los Angeles Lakers staff members, ordered document preservation across affected organisations and hired an independent legal firm to review compliance. Additionally, the NBA has re-examined injury reporting rules and prop-bet regulations and deployed AI-driven monitoring tools to spot suspicious betting patterns.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has called the situation “deeply troubling,” stressing that competitive integrity is “non-negotiable.”
Recent polling shows the scandal is already affecting trust. About 33 percent of Americans believe NBA coaches and players are involved in illegal betting, according to a recent Quinnipiac University Sports Poll.
A separate Sacred Heart University survey found a major decline in sports bettors’ trust in NBA fairness, with many shifting wagering preference to the NFL and calling for stricter oversight.
With legal sports betting expanding nationwide, analysts warn that the convergence of insider access, player data and prop-bet markets has created new vulnerabilities. The NBA recently met with the US House Energy and Commerce Committee to discuss enhanced safeguards.
Regulators and leagues now face escalating pressure to tighten controls around athlete data, injury reports and staff access to sensitive information, especially as criminal networks and illegal bookmakers increasingly target insider leaks.
#SportsIntegrity #NBAScandal #InsiderBetting #USRegulation #Compliance #BettingIntegrity
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