WSJ What’s News - What an FBI Probe Into Illegal Betting Means for the NBA

Episode Date: October 23, 2025

P.M. Edition for Oct. 23. More than 30 people, including Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, were charged today in an investigation into illegal gambling, rigged poker games, and match-fixing in the NBA. We hear from WSJ sports reporter Jared Diamond about what this means for the league, and the role that legal gambling platforms may have played in the alleged crimes. Plus, in an exclusive, we report that President Trump has pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, which may pave the way for the world’s largest crypto exchange to return to the U.S. And struggling food company Beyond Meat became one of the most traded stocks in the U.S. yesterday. WSJ markets reporter Hannah Erin Lang joins to discuss why the company’s stock is the latest to become a meme, and what it means for the company in the long term. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal prosecutors charge more than 30 people, including a current NBA coach and player, as part of an investigation into illegal gambling. This is a complete disaster for the NBA. Really one of the biggest gambling scandals in the history of American sports. There's really no other way to put it. Plus, President Trump pardons finance founder, Chang Peng Zhao.

And is it 2021? because meme stocks are back. It's Thursday, October 23rd. I'm Alex Osala for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. Portland Trailblazers head coach Chauncey Billups

and Miami Heat Guard Terry Rozier were each arrested this morning in connection with a sweeping investigation into illegal gambling and rigging games in the NBA. That's according to several people familiar with the matter. Speaking at a press conference today, FBI director Cash Patel offered some details about the alleged crime ring. The fraud is mind-boggling. It's not hundreds of dollars. It's not thousands of dollars.

It's not tens of thousands of dollars. It's not even millions of dollars. We're talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud and theft and robbery across a multi-year investigation. This isn't the first time a gambling scandal. has affected the NBA, but Billups is by far the most prominent figure to be swept up in the federal investigation. WSJ sports reporter Jared Diamond is here to tell us more. Jared, what do we know about this probe? Well, there are essentially two different gambling-related schemes, allegedly operating concurrently, both involving NBA players. The first one, pretty simple

sports betting, match-fixing type of probe where there's NBA players and others connected to the NBA allegedly feeding inside information for the purpose of gambling. So essentially, Terry Rozier, he was playing in a game. He allegedly knew that he planned to remove himself from that game with an injury. That information was allegedly passed along to some gamblers who used it to bet a lot of money on Terry Rozier, not meeting certain statistical benchmarks and made money off of it. And this was happening allegedly around the NBA. The other case is something brand new. This involves a large ring of underground illegal poker games where the games were rigged using x-ray tables, mark cards, where you could only see them

with contact lenses, rigged shuffling machines. And these games were set up to allegedly feel money from people. But what these people who organized these games did is they were able somehow in ways that we haven't quite figured out yet recruit big-name people, NBA players, to lure in other victims to essentially giving their money up in these rigged poker games. We also know that the mafia was involved with these poker. game. The fact that NBA players have gotten involved with this, allegedly just adds more intrigues. Honestly, something straight out of a movie. Given what you just said, is this a bad

look for the NBA? This is a complete disaster for the NBA. Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, has been known for years as the first and the loudest pro-gambling commissioner in American sports. He was the first one of all the leagues to come out in favor of legalizing sports gambling. It is now that commissioner who was facing really one of the biggest gambling scandals in the history of American sports. There's really no other way to put it. The ways and platforms for people to gamble legally in the U.S. have really proliferated in recent years. Did that play a role in the alleged crimes here? These poker games that we're talking about,

underground poker games at home. They were not done at tables in Las Vegas. But the Terry Rozier matter. The best thing question are all placed legal, all placed in regulated sports books in the United States, the fanduels and draft kings of the world and others. The reality is there's no question that the rise of legal gambling has created an environment that lends itself to more gambling scandals. That was Wall Street Journal sports reporter Jared Diamond. Thank you, Jared. You got it. In a statement, the NBA said that Billups and Rozier had been placed on immediately from their teams. The Portland Trailblazers, which Billups coaches, didn't immediately respond to inquiries.

Rozier's lawyer said that his client is not a gambler, but is, quote, not afraid of a fight. Top Republicans warned today that air traffic controllers would miss their paychecks next week because of the government shutdown. Speaking at a news conference, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that the strain on the aviation system would hit travelers. In the GOP-controlled Senate, Republicans failed to advance a measure today that would pay all federal workers who are deemed essential by the administration and required to work during a shutdown, including air traffic controllers. The vote was 54 in favor to 45 against, short of the 60 votes needed. Democratic Senators John Federman of Pennsylvania and John Assoff and Raphael Warnock of Georgia sided with Republicans.

And New York City Mayor Eric Adams will endorse Andrew Cuomo in the city's mayoral race, marking a late effort to boost the former governor's chances of defeating frontrunner Zoran Mamdani. The election is on Tuesday, November 4th. U.S. stocks rose after the White House announced that President Trump would meet with Chinese leaders Xi Jinping next week in Asia. The Dow increased about 0.3%. The S&P 500 added about 0.6%, and the NASDAQ ended

about 0.9% higher. And reporting after the bell, Ford Motors profit more than doubled in the third quarter as its sales rose for pickups and SUVs. The company's third quarter revenue exceeded $50 billion, establishing a record and topping the $43 billion that analysts expected, according to LSEG. Coming up, what yesterday's feeding frenzy for beyond meat stock means for the company's long-term prospects. That's after the break. We're exclusively reporting that President Trump has pardoned Changping Zhao, the convicted founder of the crypto exchange Binance. The move follows months of efforts by Zhao to boost the Trump family's own crypto company. According to a person familiar with the matter, Trump recently

indicated to advisors that he was sympathetic to arguments of political persecution related to Zhao and others. A pardon will likely pave the way for Binance, which is the world's largest crypto exchange, to return to the U.S. after the company pleaded guilty in 2023 to violating U.S. anti-money laundering requirements and was barred from operating in the country. And in another exclusive, we report that electric truck maker Rivian is laying off more than 600 people, or around 4% of its workforce. That's according to people familiar with the matter. The cuts follow a smaller round of layoffs last month. Rivian and other EV manufacturers are being hit hard by the pullback in policies that supported the adoption of electric vehicles.

Years after its buzzy 2019 IPO, Beyond Meat has struggled to persuade more consumers to buy its potato starch and pea protein patties. But meme stock traders are all in. Yesterday, Beyond Meat's shares more than doubled before giving back all of the gains. According to FACSet, more than 2 billion Beyond Meat shares changed hands yesterday, making it the second most traded name among U.S. stocks, and a major focus of online investing forums. For more on what's driving the craze, I'm joined now by WSJ Markets reporter, Hannah Aaron Lang.

Hannah, why are traders looking at beyond meat as a meme stock? There are a couple factors that might be at play here. One is that last week, the company outlined this debt deal that required them to issue a ton more shares and drop the stock price, making the shares effectively even cheaper

than the few dollars they had been before. You can buy a large quantity of shares without having to spend a lot of money. Also, on Tuesday, Beyond Me announced a new deal with Walmart that would expand distribution of its products in those stores. So those are a couple potential catalysts here. But like all meme stocks, the jump in the share price was a little bit arbitrary and kind of came out of nowhere. I feel like I haven't actually heard the term meme stock in a while.

I mean, it's been a minute since the 2021 GameStop frenzy. So is this a sign that mean stocks are maybe coming back? We have seen meme stocks reappear this year. We now have a meme stock ETF from Roundhill investments. And this is characteristic of what the market looks like today. We're seeing a lot of speculation, a lot of risky bets. And with that comes the reemergence of meme stocks. How about for Beyond Meat? What does this memeification mean for its long-term prospects? This has played out differently for companies that have become meme stocks in the last year. We've seen this drive major changes.

Look at Open Door and the CEO departure that happened after that stock skyrocketed earlier this summer. But just because individual investors have driven such a large jump in this company's stock doesn't mean this is the foundation for a long-lasting positive change for the company. This is a company with longstanding challenges to the fundamentals of its business. And the thing about meme stocks is that the share price action is completely disconnected from those fundamentals. That was Wall Street Journal reporter, Hannah Aaron Lang. Thanks, Hannah. Thanks for having me. And finally, Hollywood's next big bet is small, very small.

Traditional studios and startups are jumping on the microdrama bandwagon that has swept through China and is making inroads in the U.S. and elsewhere. And today we're exclusively reporting that this week, former movie studio executive Bill Block is launching Gamma Time, a microdrama platform with more than 20 shows. Joe Flint, who covers media and entertainment for the journal, told me what a micro-drama is and why the people behind Gamma Time think it will succeed in the U.S. where other short-form video platforms have failed. A micro-drama is essentially a very short series. So let's say you and I were making a TV series.

What if that series from start to finish was only 60 minutes, and then we chopped it up into little one-minute. or two-minute episodes, and then put them on a platform or on a social media space like TikTok or Facebook. We'd have them watch a few episodes, and then we'd make them join our app, and then we'd make them buy tokens so they could keep watching and maybe even force some advertising on them. So it's very similar to mobile gaming. That's how mobile gaming operates.

Some free, some pay. You buy tokens. The idea is you kind of become addicted to these things. And it's a little psychological thing. When you're buying tokens, of course, you don't really think you're spending money, but you are. The one thing everyone involved in this business will tell you is this is not Quibi 2. Quibi was not cheap. They were trying to make big budget content for the small screen.

They were trying to do serious news programming as well. Quibi, I dare say, was very ambitious and probably a little bit of the right idea at the wrong time. And that's what's news for this Thursday afternoon. Today's show is produced by Pierre Bienname and Zoe Colkin with deputy editor Jana Heron. I'm Alex O'Sullough for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.