Another NBA Player Charged With Rigging Games for Gamblers
According to a federal indictment, Malik Beasley was in debt to a former teammate when he agreed to help gamblers by manipulating his own performance.
- A federal indictment charged NBA player Malik Beasley with conspiring to manipulate his performance in games for a gambling scheme.
- Former NBA player Ed Davis allegedly reduced Beasley’s gambling debts in exchange for Beasley fixing his game performances.
- The government’s investigation led to Beasley losing a proposed $42 million free-agent contract and ending his NBA career.
It was the final seconds of a comfortable Milwaukee Bucks win in March of 2024, but Malik Beasley was still playing as though his life depended on it.
Just before the buzzer sounded, Beasley sprinted from the 3-point arc to the hoop and fended off an opponent to snag his fourth rebound of the night. That rebound did nothing to help his team, but it meant everything to another group of people: the gamblers to whom Beasley had allegedly promised he would hit the “over” on his prop bet for rebounds, set at 3.5.
According to a federal indictment handed down on Monday, that one second of effort meant Beasley’s alleged co-conspirators took home more than $5,000.
“Fam we were 1.1 secs away from being down thousands lol,” one defendant wrote in a group text to his alleged conspirators.
This was merely one instance in what federal prosecutors in New York say was a sweeping gambling scheme that saw Beasley allegedly conspire with a former teammate to intentionally manipulate his performance. Meanwhile, 12-year NBA veteran Ed Davis and his associates were raking in thousands of dollars betting on Beasley’s statistics.
The government’s indictment identifies four games during the 2023-24 season where it said Beasley agreed to participate in the scam. Beasley had allegedly accumulated millions of dollars in gambling losses and, at times, owed money to Davis, a retired forward who played with Beasley on the Minnesota Timberwolves during the 2020-21 campaign. In return for fixing his games, Beasley would have his bill to Davis reduced or eliminated, according to the indictment.
The charges against the 29-year-old Beasley are yet another example of a prominent NBA player swept up in illegal gambling activities—and the implications for the league are chilling. On Jan. 26, 2024, the day Jontay Porter removed himself from a Toronto Raptors game with a fake injury so his conspirators would win bets, there was another game on the take 500 miles away. (Porter has since pleaded guilty to federal charges and is awaiting sentencing.)
Beasley was playing for the Bucks, making sure he would grab fewer than four rebounds, according to the indictment. He succeeded. Beasley’s attorney, Steve Haney, said they would “vigorously defend the charges.”
“We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority,” said NBA spokesman Mike Bass.
By March 10, 2024, Beasley had already manipulated his performance in two other games without detection, according to the indictment. But against the Los Angeles Clippers that night, it took the full 48 minutes for Beasley to hold up his end of the bargain.
On a group text right after his final, sprinting rebound, one defendant wrote in all caps, “NO WAY.” Another replied, “What’s funny is after he got it he had a big sigh of relief.”
About a month before the scheme began, according to the indictment, Beasley was trying to repay his debts to Davis. That’s when Davis texted him, “Only way you can beat Vegas is sports betting. Everything else they got the edge.”
John Adams, an attorney for Davis, declined to comment.
Once Beasley was on board, the next question was which games to target. The government says the gamblers specifically looked for non-marquee games—far from the NBA’s nationally televised showcases on ESPN and TNT—where Beasley could manipulate his performance.
“It’s better not to be on tv for us,” one defendant wrote in a group chat.
There was also infighting among the group, with some bettors chasing big paydays while others settled for more modest wins. At one point, one defendant accused another of betting so much that he single-handedly altered the lines, which risked drawing suspicions from authorities.
“You making insane amount stop it,” one defendant complained to another. “You move the lines every time.”
According to the indictment, the scheme collapsed after Beasley allegedly failed to deliver on his promise to underperform on rebounds in another game. Gamblers demanded that Davis arrange for Beasley to keep fixing his performance so they could recoup what they had lost.
Davis initially agreed. Days later, news broke that the NBA was investigating Porter for gambling. Davis reneged on his promise, prosecutors say.
As for Beasley, he played in the NBA through the end of the 2024-25 season. That summer, he was on the verge of signing a $42 million free-agent contract that would’ve doubled his career earnings.
That offer disappeared during the government’s investigation that led to Monday’s indictment. Beasley hasn’t played in the NBA since.
Satellite Pay-TV Provider Dish DBS Prepares for Bankruptcy Filing
The EchoStar unit is preparing for chapter 11 as soon as Tuesday, as it faces regulatory scrutiny over its network build-out
- Dish DBS, a satellite pay-TV provider, is preparing to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy as soon as Tuesday.
- The company has struggled with heavy debt and subscriber losses, and faces a battle with federal regulators.
- The FCC is reviewing Dish DBS compliance with 5G service obligations, which could lead to a loss of prior grants.
Dish DBS, the satellite pay-TV provider under Charlie Ergen’s EchoStar broadcast empire, is preparing to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy as soon as Tuesday, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Englewood, Colo., parent, also owner of Dish TV and Boost Mobile, has been struggling with heavy debt and subscriber losses for years. At the same time, the company has been locked in a battle with federal regulators over whether it has met its obligations to deploy its valuable wireless spectrum licenses.
Law firm White & Case and FTI Consulting have been brought on to advise Dish DBS, the people said.
EchoStar said in mid-June that DBS would make belated interest payments on several of its bonds due on June 1. EchoStar had previously said it wasn’t making these payments because of uncertainty surrounding a review by the Federal Communications Commission. On May 9, the FCC notified the company it was reviewing its compliance with certain federal obligations to provide 5G service in the U.S.
The regulator has raised questions about EchoStar’s build-out extension and mobile-satellite service utilization in the 2 GHz band. If the commission finds a lack of compliance, the company could lose some prior FCC grants of authority, EchoStar has said.
In March, EchoStar announced an agreement with holders of more than 82% of Dish DBS debt for a deleveraging plan that might involve a bankruptcy filing.
Representatives for EchoStar and Dish Network didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
China Now Plays a Bigger Role in Global Ad Market
The Information
Half of the world’s 10 biggest ad-selling companies in 2025 were headquartered in China.
The Takeaway
- Five Chinese firms now rank among the world’s 10 biggest ad sellers.
- Internet and commerce firms dominate top ad sellers, displacing traditional media.
- Retail media spending surged to $175.7 billion, with China as the largest market.
Advertising was once primarily a subsidy for news and entertainment media, such as television, magazines and newspapers. Nowadays, it’s more of a subsidy for online services and increasingly for merchants looking to boost their razor-thin operating margins.
At the same time, Chinese firms have become a much bigger part of the market. Both trends are evident from a list of the 10 biggest global ad sellers—firms that make money by selling space on their sites to advertisers—compiled by WPP’s media-buying arm for calendar year 2025 (see the above chart).
The growth of digital advertising and the rise of Chinese firms together have made advertising much more of a global market, with marketers buying ads in countries far afield from where they’re based, using global media outlets.
Aside from the big U.S.-based ad giants, Google and Meta Platforms, the list includes four commerce firms, including Amazon and three Chinese firms—Alibaba, Temu parent PDD and JD.com. Other Chinese ad sellers include ByteDance, owner of Chinese video app Douyin, TikTok and TikTok Shop, WeChat owner Tencent and Chinese video service Kuaishou. The only other U.S. company on the list is Microsoft.
The data is drawn from both publicly available figures and WPP’s own estimates for companies such as ByteDance, which isn’t public, and others such as Microsoft, which don’t report their total ad revenue.
Two decades ago, the list would likely have been dominated by Western media and entertainment firms, with interests ranging from newspapers to magazines to television. No media companies make the list nowadays, although the pending merger of Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Skydance will restore at least that combined company to the list. Other big media firms, such as Walt Disney Co. and Comcast, are a bit smaller than the 10th biggest firm on the list, Kuaishou.
The shift highlights not only that internet firms have sucked up much of the advertising that was the lifeblood of traditional media, but that within the digital sector, retailers have followed Amazon’s lead in building big ad businesses on their websites. (Just last week, Walmart bought ad tech firm Vibe as part of its effort to build its advertising business.)
The shopping sites mainly generate their ad revenues from brands and merchants who spend money to get more visibility and target specific types of consumers on those shopping platforms.
The amount spent on retail media, as shopping sites are called, has jumped from $73 billion in 2020 to $175.7 billion last year, WPP estimates. It projects the category will grow to $265.6 billion by 2030.
China is the biggest part of that market, according to Kate Scott-Dawkins, global president of business intelligence at WPP Media. Spending on Chinese retail media was $77.6 billion last year, compared with $59.4 billion in the U.S. market.
Scott-Dawkins notes, however, that growth in the retail media market has slowed sharply in China, as social commerce sites—such as ByteDance’s TikTok Shop, where influencers pitch products for sale—gain momentum. Last year the Chinese retail media segment grew just 4.5%, less than half the 2024 growth rate, and WPP projects growth will slow to 2.8% this year.
One byproduct of the growth of internet companies selling ads on a global basis is that it is harder to measure the impact of advertising on individual countries’ economies, Scott-Dawkins says. A marketer in China can buy an ad to be shown in Brazil on an internet platform based in the U.S. The marketer pays for the ad in their home country. The ad doesn’t involve any money flowing into Brazil.
That is evident in Meta’s financial statements, which report revenue based both on where users are based and where customers are based. Meta’s first-quarter numbers, for instance, showed that companies based in Asia-Pacific generated $15.445 billion in revenue for Meta. But ads shown to users in Asia-Pacific accounted for only $10.6 billion in revenue.
That implies Asia-Pacific–based companies spent a lot of money targeting users in other parts of the world. Meanwhile, North American companies spent $21.267 billion on Meta advertising. But Meta reported that advertisers trying to reach North American users generated $23.7 billion in ad revenue. The bottom line is that conventional analysis that looks at ad spending as a percentage of GDP may no longer be accurate.
Indeed, ad spending is designed to prompt people to buy something, so the ads themselves may not involve money changing hands in a country—but they could spark economic activity in that country anyway.
Airbus to Get $3.42 Billion Loan From European Investment Bank in Tech Sovereignty Push
The corporate loan is the largest the bank has ever authorized
Airbus will receive a 3 billion-euro loan from the European Investment Bank, the largest corporate loan ever authorized by the EIB.
The financing will bolster Airbus’s research and development, supporting investments through 2030 in commercial aviation, security, and defense.
The EIB aims to bolster Europe’s technological autonomy and industrial strength amid tense trading relationships with the U.S. and China.
European aerospace leader Airbus AIR -1.31%decrease; red down pointing triangle will get a 3 billion euros ($3.42 billion) loan from the European Investment Bank as European Union officials seek to build out the bloc’s own technological capabilities to fend off mounting competition from the U.S. and China.
The EIB said that an initial 1 billion-euro tranche—signed at a ceremony in Brussels Monday—would bolster Airbus’s research and development in European aerospace. The financing package will support the company’s planned investments through 2030 in areas such as commercial aviation, security and defense, the EIB said, with projects in France, Germany and Spain.
The bank said the corporate loan was the largest the EIB has ever authorized after Airbus made its request six months ago.
“The EIB Group is deploying its full firepower to bolster Europe’s technological autonomy, industrial strength and economic competitiveness,” Nadia Calviño, the EIB’s president, said in a statement. The financing plan shows Europe can move with speed and at scale to support its champions and reinforce its position in the emerging geopolitical landscape, she added.
The institution, which is jointly owned by the EU’s 27 member states, has recently ramped up its support in sectors such as defense and tech as policymakers try to address increasingly tense trading relationships with countries like the U.S. and China. Airbus also signed a deal with fellow European aerospace groups Leonardo and Thales in October to create a joint venture that could better compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
“The highly competitive terms and extended flexibility grant us the maximum optionality to manage our balance sheet, minimize the cost of carry and sustain our long-term investments in aerospace innovation,” Thomas Toepfer, Airbus’s chief financial officer, said.
Wimbledon tennis stars cancel protest over prize money
Players say tournament’s chiefs have committed to ‘return with specific proposals’ in response to their concerns
Tennis stars have called off a planned protest at Wimbledon after “constructive” talks with organisers over the players’ campaign for a bigger share of the revenues generated by the championships.
The decision not to limit their media commitments at the tournament to 15 minutes during the first week came following meetings with the All England Lawn Tennis Club over the weekend, the players’ representatives said in a statement on Monday.
The players said Wimbledon leaders had committed to “return with specific proposals” in response to their concerns.
“The underlying matters remain unresolved and players will carefully evaluate the proposals once received,” the players’ representatives said. “Constructive dialogue with Wimbledon and the other Grand Slams will continue.”
Ahead of this year’s tournament, the club increased prize funds by 20 per cent year on year to £64.2mn. Players welcomed the rise but have called for a greater share of revenues generated by Wimbledon.
A key element of the tennis players’ argument is that top athletes in other sports, such as football, typically earn a bigger share of revenues. They are also calling for the other Grand Slams — in Australia, France and the US — to increase prize money.
However, Wimbledon officials argue that revenues are not the right metric because they do not take into account the costs of staging the championships.
In a press conference on Saturday, men’s number one Jannik Sinner said progress was being made “even though we are not at the point where we are 100 per cent happy”. The Italian stressed that players’ discontent was “not only about the money” but welfare too.
Sinner begins the defence of his Wimbledon title on centre court on Monday against Miomir Kecmanović. Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz, the man Sinner defeated in last year’s final, is absent because of an injured right wrist.
Alcaraz, a two-time Wimbledon champion, was also unable to compete at Roland-Garros, the French major he won last year. His absence is a blow to Wimbledon and its broadcasters, which include the BBC and ESPN in the US, because of his intense on-court rivalry with Sinner.
The duo are vital to the sport’s commercial fortunes. While 24-time major champion Novak Djokovic is still active on the tour, the “Big Three” era ended with Rafael Nadal’s retirement in 2024, two years after Swiss great Roger Federer quit.
In another blow, Britain’s Emma Raducanu withdrew on Sunday due to a stress fracture in her lower right leg. The 2021 US Open winner is the highest-ranked British player on the women’s tour.
But in a boost to organisers, US superstar Serena Williams has announced a comeback at the age of 44. The seven-time Wimbledon winner is up against Australia’s Maya Joint in the first round on Tuesday as she looks to add to her 23 Grand Slam singles titles.
Wimbledon is competing for attention in a busy summer of sport. The England men’s team is competing at the football World Cup, with the knockout rounds under way.
England is also competing in the Women’s T20 World Cup, with a semi-final against South Africa scheduled for Thursday ahead of a potential final on Sunday.
Meanwhile, British Formula 1 racing drivers including George Russell of Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari, and Lando Norris of McLaren are preparing for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone this Sunday.
The AELTC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Martin Marietta Strikes $13.5 Billion Deal for Limestone Supplier
Purchase of Lhoist North America would be building-materials supplier’s biggest ever
Martin Marietta Materials MLM -2.05%decrease; down pointing triangle has struck a deal to combine with limestone supplier Lhoist North America in a transaction valued at $13.5 billion, including debt, according to people familiar with the matter.
The details
Martin Marietta is expected to use a mix of $7 billion in cash along with shares of its stock valued at $6.5 billion to fund the deal, the people said.
A transaction could be announced as soon as Monday morning, they added.
The deal would be the largest ever for Raleigh, N.C.-based Martin Marietta, which has a market value of more than $36 billion.
Martin Marietta shares traded at all-time highs in February, with its stock price rallying over 70% over the past five years.
Martin Marietta specializes in supplying heavy building materials such as crushed stone, sand, gravel and asphalt used across infrastructure, including highways and sidewalks, and in construction. It also has a smaller and highly profitable specialty-materials business that makes products including dolomitic lime.
Lhoist North America, based in Fort Worth, Texas, is an extractor, manufacturer and supplier of lime, limestone and other mineral-based products. The segment is part of the privately held Lhoist Group, a family-owned Belgian industrial company that dates back to 1889.
Lhoist’s Berghmans family is expected to own roughly 15% of Martin Marietta upon the deal’s close, the people familiar with the matter said.
The context
Lime is a versatile material used in everything from water treatment and agriculture to steel manufacturing. The combined company could benefit from the boom in data-center construction and semiconductor fabrication in the U.S., among other planned infrastructure projects that require lime.
Martin Marietta’s main aggregates business focuses on heavy materials like crushed stone and has posted strong financial results for years.
Lhoist’s assets in North America are primarily located across the U.S. Sunbelt, an area that Martin Marietta has also said is key to its long-term growth.
Ward Nye has served as chief executive officer of Martin Marietta since 2010. He has used dealmaking, typically local and bolt-on deals, as part of his strategy to expand the business.