Professional poker player Matt Berkey sounded the alarm on poker games hosted by Chauncey Billups in 2023
Chaos ensued as the Trail Blazers coach and others were picked up by the FBI on betting charges.
Months before Chauncey Billups’ arrest sent shockwaves through the NBA this week, professional poker player Matt Berkey had already sounded the alarm. Speaking on his Only Friends podcast back in 2023, Berkey said he’d heard troubling reports about private poker games “built around Chauncey Billups,” insisting they were “absolutely not on the up and up.”
“I knew people who played in those games,” Berkey said amid giggles. “It was for sure confirmed to be cheating.” He described suspicious betting patterns and noted that even seasoned players were losing money in inexplicable ways, signs that technology may have been used to reveal cards during play.
Those claims now look prophetic. Federal investigators allege that Billups and several associates, including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, took part in a betting ring that rigged poker games to defraud participants.
With Billups suspended and assistant Tiago Splitter named interim head coach in Portland, the fallout from the scandal is only beginning, and Berkey’s early warnings are taking on new weight as the FBI prepares to release more details.
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