Damon Jones plans to plead guilty to selling sports gambling insider information

Former NBA player and assistant coach Damon Jones plans to plead guilty to sports gambling charges first brought by the Department of Justice last fall.

Jones was accused of selling insider information to sports gamblers, including LeBron James’ game status, while he worked with the Los Angeles Lakers. Prosecutors for the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of New York charged Jones with two federal counts last October.

He initially pleaded not guilty, but a lawyer for Jones confirmed that he intends to change his plea. Jones is the first of six defendants charged in the case to signal he will plead guilty. Former Miami Heat and Charlotte Hornets guard Terry Rozier is also facing charges from that same case and indictment.

Jones is expected to appear in front of a federal judge in Brooklyn on April 28.

Federal prosecutors said that Jones used his proximity to the Lakers as James’ personal shooting coach to gain and sell non-public information that could be useful for sports gamblers.

He is alleged to have texted an unnamed co-conspirator the morning of the Lakers’ Feb. 9, 2023 game against the Milwaukee Bucks to bet big on the Bucks because a player matching James’ description would not play that night. James had not yet publicly been ruled out but he would not play. Prosecutors claim Jones also sold health information on another Lakers player ahead of a Jan. 15, 2024 game that he obtained from that players’ trainer and Marves Fairley —who has been charged in the same case — shared that with other bettors and placed a wager worth roughly $100,000 on the Lakers to lose that night. The Lakers lost; Fairley asked Jones to repay him the $2,500 fee, according to the indictment against both men. Prosecutors said that Jones tried to sell that insider information on players as early as Dec. 2022.

Jones is also facing charges in another DOJ gambling investigation. He was accused of participating in a rigged poker game ring that took millions of dollars from unknowing victims. Jones and former Portland Trail Blazers head coach and Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups acted as lures to bring in those victims, federal prosecutors alleged. Jones has pleaded not guilty in that case.

Rozier and Billups have both pleaded not guilty.

Jones becomes the latest to plead guilty in what has now become a wide-stretching sports gambling investigation by the Department of Justice. Prosecutors first brought charges in June 2024 against four men accused of working with former Toronto Raptors center Jontay Porter to win bets on his statistics. Porter was alleged to have manipulated his play and his minutes in two games so that the group of gamblers could win their wagers on his play. Three of those men have since pleaded guilty and Porter pleaded guilty to one federal count and is awaiting sentencing.

Prosecutors with the Eastern District of Pennsylvania brought charges against some of the same men involved in the NBA insider information case for allegedly building a sprawling college basketball point-shaving scheme. Two men have been charged in both the NBA and college basketball case. Twenty college basketball players have been charged for helping them, and some have already pleaded guilty.