The Josh Innes Show - Malik Beasley Gambling Allegations

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

Malik Beasley of the Detroit Pistons may have been betting on games in the 2023-2024 season. It's crazy to think these dudes making millions of dollars would risk it in such a manner. That said, people have been posting videos that, if you watch them with the idea that he's gambling, really make it seem like he's gambling. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Dazone. For the first time ever, the 32 best soccer clubs from across the world are coming together to decide who the undisputed champions of the world are in the FIFA Club World Cup. The world's best players, Messi, Holland, Kane and more are all taking part. And you can watch every match for free on Dazone, starting on June 14th and running until July 13th. Sign up now at Dazone.com slash fifa. That's d-a-z-n dot com slash fifa. I am quite intrigued by the idea that NBA players are gambling on NBA games, which is fascinating to me because I have no clue why these guys would want to do this because to do it you would have to bet such a large sum of money to to get any kind of

joy out of it that it would become a red flag that random giant bets are being made on these games it's like when the dude that um the dude from uh the dude from missouri that uh got bounced from the league for gambling on his own prop bets i forgot what the guy's name was but the dude that was betting on his own prop bets like people in in Vegas and other places are like, what the fuck? Why are there these strange, large sums of money being bet on random player prop bets? And then there's a red flag and they start searching it. Vegas does not like to get screwed. These gambling sites do not like to get screwed. They do

not like it and they will do anything they possibly can to not get screwed and if they think they're getting screwed, they'll look into it. Then the feds get into it and then boom you're kicked out of the league. I forgot that guy's name. John tape something Porter that no not Porter that Porter is it? I don't know but either way so the latest person involved in this the latest name that's come to light is Malik Beasley of the Detroit Pistons. And let's get

into that after these words. Before we get into Malik Beasley though, there's a reel that's been making the rounds. And when you watch this reel, you'll be like, holy shit, I think this person is betting on the game. It's Gary Payton, Jr. Right? It's not real Gary Payton. It's you know, Gary Payton of the of the Warriors. The video you have to watch it to really appreciate it. But the guy is breaking it down. There's five seconds to go in a basketball game. Warriors are up by 11. They're up by 12. I take that back.

They're up 12. The spread is 11 and a half. They're up by like 10. The game is over, right? But what happens is they're playing out the string and the Warriors get fouled on a rebound. So they hit both of their free throws to go up 14. Remember the spread is 11 and a half. You look at the bench and Gary Payton is on the bench, hands over his mouth, shocked and you can kind of read his lips and he's like, shit, they're going to have to go shoot again. Like he's concerned. Like it looks like he has money on the Warriors point spread in this game, right? Whatever, the over, probably the point spread, right?

So they make both free throws. There's five seconds to go. Wizards are down 10 the games over whatever there's five seconds. They go down and shoot a three and bury a wide open three at the end of the game to cover the spread. It was 11 and a half. They lose by 11 and Peyton is on the bench and he is despondent.

Like it is the look of a guy because I know that look a look of a guy that just lost a bet and dudes on the bench are laughing with him like Steph Curry's there laughing and the idea is that that dude bet on that game. Now maybe he didn't that's circumstantial there's no evidence to back that up. It's just a circumstantial thing where you've got a guy watching a basketball game. He plays for one of the teams. Maybe he just knew what the spread was and was fascinating. Look, I'll give him somewhat of the benefit of the doubt,

although I think this thing is very icky and I think there's a very good possibility he was betting on this, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt here. Sometimes you'll watch a game that you don't bet on and you'll see what happens to get the game to ride around the line that the line was and you'll be blown away by it. Like the fact that it got to where it got, the fact that it was an 11.5 point spread and they hit a three with no seconds left on the clock to cover that number. The fact that the spread is 11.5 and somehow the final difference is 10, 11, 12. You're like, holy shit, how do they know? They were just up 20 yet somehow covered like it is that that happens. You will

watch a game and be blown away by how dead on accurate. Now, the job of the people build, you know, making the lines are not is not to be, you know, dead on accurate is to get action on both sides of the number, but they'll look at it and you'll go, holy shit. The fact that happened. So there's a possibility that he knew the spread because I think guys know the spread. It's unavoidable to know the spread and I'm sure guys like to **** with the spread even if they don't bet on the game like I would do

that. If I were a basketball player and I knew the spread, I would do anything possible to screw with the spread, particularly when the game's already over. Like if I'm a bench dude that comes in in the last like minute of a 20 point game, and the spread is like 19 and a half, I would do everything possible to screw with people. If I were a coach, I would do everything possible to screw with people. If I didn't bet on it, you have no proof that I was doing you know

that to fuck with the spread. But everybody knows it like this isn't the 1970s where you look in a newspaper and see a spread you talk to your bookie and see a spread it is everywhere. It is plastered everywhere the game broadcast have it you can go into stadiums and see like live spreads. I don't know if they actually do that, but it would make sense if they did you see fantasy stats in every stadium. So like it's everywhere. It's

beaten over the head and that's the other thing. How if you're the NBA or any league, can you be shocked if you've got guys that start engaging in this shit? When you are knee deep, you don't even need deep in it. You are fucking head deep in this you are underwater as it relates to how in bed you are with gambling. Like I'm watching NBA basketball games. That's what the story is out of right. Malik Beasley is the name. I mentioned the Gary Payton video, but this is Malik Beasley of the

Detroit Pistons. When you turn on a Detroit Pistons game or a Memphis Grizzlies game or whatever, most of these broadcasts occur on what was the Bally Sports Network and is now FanDuel Sports Network. When you turn on the pregame shows, they've got dudes on the pregame show that are telling you the spread telling you their favorite parlays. At halftime, they'll give you an update on what the live spread is. So you'll go bet you want to tell me that all of this gambling shit you're doing and the fact that you're collecting millions upon millions of dollars from gambling, you want to tell me

you'd be shocked if some guy like Gary Payton or Malik Beasley is fucking around with the spread and maybe potentially kind of sort of betting on it. We've already seen that college dudes have done it. We've already seen that pro dudes have done it. Now the argument would be why the fuck would a dude making millions of dollars risk all that to bet? And I would agree with you. I think it's stupid. But maybe Malik Beasley was. Like let's read some of the story about this. It's an investigation that's been going on for 18 months. It's being overseen by the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. ESPN reported that an unnamed US sportsbook detected heavy betting action on Beasley statistics in January 2024 or thereabouts. I'll tell you one damn thing. Every time I've bet on Malik Beasley, like he'll have a huge game, I'll build a parlay. When they were playing the Knicks in the playoffs, I started building parlays with him to score 15 points or hit three threes, and that son

of a bitch was always one of nine. He was like one of nine, one of ten, dropping passes and shit. So I'm of the belief that this son of a bitch is out here cheating. But anywho, with the American gambling industry still in a distinct and extended Wild West phase, it's unclear whether and to what extent sportsbooks routinely monitor betting for suspicious trends if detected, whether they alert the authorities. The NFL has justified its dramatic about face on gambling in part by explaining that the sportsbooks who pump the league's coffers with cash can let the league know when players or league or team employees are potentially violating the league's gambling policy. Here's something that occurred to me whilst I'm reading a story.

Now I want the details on this. Like someone give me some actual details. So this investigation's been going on for 18 months. I don't need pro football talk breaking down Malik Beasley for me. Let's take a look. So Sports Illustrated. Let's see. Let's see, like what kind of evidence do they have here?

Beasley, however, has been an NBA since 2016. His career earnings, according to Spotrack spot track are 60 million. One of the details reported by Shams was that the investigation centers around allegations from the 2023-2024 season when Beasley was on the box. It seems many people did not read the story and only saw the headlines because social media sleuths of course think they have discovered evidence of Beasley being up to no good, but that's what the piss to see well That's me like listen. Let's look at no this actually from a couple years ago when he was with the timber wolf That's the video that everybody's going to

The video of like eight is like five seconds to go And He they need to get a bucket to cover the timber wolves are an eight and a half point underdog They're down nine. There's five seconds to go and he goes coast to coast and dunks it with no time left on the clock to cover the spread But of course that wasn't That wasn't that year But here's another let me watch this video. This is a post from someone

Let's see. Can you you? Okay. Get me the fuck out. God damn it. Here we go. Let's see if this pops up for me. Okay. Well, that's the coast to coast one. I just watched that one. Okay. I can't let... Dude, the fucking... Can I tell you, websites are fucking junk. The number of pop-ups and bullshit and ads you get on these websites. Like, you're Sports Illustrated. You are fucking Sports Illustrated. I don't need some soap ad popping up that is so large that I cannot find the X to X out of it to read your fucking story. I understand you all got to make money and you all got to survive. You're fucking Sports Illustrated. You're one of the most acclaimed sports publications ever and your

stupid fucking website has giant Old Spice ads popping up to the point that I can't click on anything. But either way, this investigation goes from 2023-2024 and there was one other one that I was trying to look at but I can't because the Sports Illustrated site sucks, but it's just the the the comment on the story says yeah, he cooked so a lot of people. Now actually there's another one that people are referencing and I've referenced it as well was the end of the the series against the Knicks. He drops a pass that was in game six, right? So they were

down three games to two, they're down three points. They passed it to Beasley on the right wing. And he just dropped the pass and didn't even get a shot up. Let me watch this. Now I remember this vividly because I'm like, how do you drop the pass? It was right in his hands. He's wide open and oops, dropped it and didn't even take a three so You know Take from that what you will if you think the guy's been gambling there are some things that you can look at and go That's a little bit off

Let's see That's a okay. This one's another post. Yeah, he's finished. Let's watch this play. This is in a bucks pacers game That's what he played for the bucks. They're up by seven with six minutes to go. Let's see what this play is. Let's see. Beasley literally he's on the defensive side of the ball and a guy just burns and we don't even move. Again, maybe he just sucks, but like people are digging these things up now and you look like you I mean look when you're operating in the mindset that this dude is is shaving points or betting on games or whatever when you're operating in that mindset all of these videos look like proof that this dude has been out

here gambling and and either shaving points or betting on his own team or whatever. I do love the one though when he's with the Timberwolves. They're down, they're about to be down nine points with five seconds to go. The game's over. They have to go coast to coast and he quickly just gets the ball and bounce and just dunks it. They cover the spread wild. Like so it's believable. I don't know all the details on it. I don't know what we're going to find out or what we're not going to find out. I just don't think, I don't think this is going to be something that's going to become a regular occurrence that

dudes are betting on these things. But let's say, and again, there's always going to be a paper trail. The key is if you're going to bet on yourself, or you're going to bet on a game, you cannot bet a huge sum of money on something as random as a player prop. Like they might have a ton of money coming in on the spread or something, but once you start betting on player props, which are things that can be controlled by players easily, like you can take your under catches and never have a catch and you can win. That is easily manipulated, right? So you have to be very cautious if you're going to bet on these types of things. If you're going to go

out and take that, you can't bet like, oh, here's $100,000 on random Malik Beasley player prop, right? You can't do that. So you have to do it in small amounts, and it has to be done by people who have no ties to you. The problem is people can find or these investigators can find who has ties to you. So it's a it's not a good like it's almost an unwinnable situation right now I can see if you're in a scenario where you got a buddy who's in trouble. And you know you got a friend who's gotten himself into some big issues financially

needs some money you don't want to just give him money so you're like he's like hey could you go out and you know make you know fewer than five shots tonight and I can, you know, make my you know, my year like that could happen. I don't think it's happening. I can see where somebody would be that knows a player would throw that out there and go, Hey, do you mind, you know, like, going one of nine tonight so I can make 50 grand. But the second 50 grand is bet on something like that,

then it's like, okay, what? Why are people betting? Why is there $100,000 magically being put on? You're just randomly, I should say being put on Malik Beasley to make fewer than two threes or some shit, you know, and and remember, the lower that number goes, the better value you have. So like, let's say his actual number was over three and a half threes. Well over or under and that would probably be minus 110. If you took that down to Malik Beasley making no threes, like say over

one, that would be like plus three, 400 bucks maybe. So you bet 20 grand on that all of a sudden you're making 80 grand, right? So like I can see where you could fuck around with these things and really make some money for yourself or somebody else easy cash. But I don't know but some of these videos make it kind of compelling like the case is certainly compelling and some of these but anywho more to come.