A-League captain’s sly code in betting corruption scam
Adelaide Lang |
A former A-League captain went from being toasted as player of the year to secretly coordinating with a shady overseas figure to enact a betting scandal that rocked the sport.
Macarthur Bulls leader Ulises Davila, 34, liaised with a Columbian known as “J Col” to corrupt the betting outcomes of five football games across the 2023 and 2024 seasons.
In one message, the agreed facts show he asked his associate whether there was any market for yellow card fixing by using the banana emoji as code.
The Mexican roped his teammates Clayton Lewis and Kearyn Baccus into the scheme by arranging for them to earn yellow cards to satisfy a desired betting outcome.
During a match on December 9, 2023, Davila was cautioned for delaying play by kicking the ball away, Lewis was carded for pushing an opponent in the chest and Baccus was rebuked for a poor tackle.
Before the match, 50 “suspicious” bets had been placed through gambling site BetPlay on Macarthur FC receiving at least four disciplinary cards.
Winning payouts totalled more than $200,000, according to the agreed facts.
About $26,500 in Mexican pesos was paid into a foreign bank account, prosecutors say, but there is no direct evidence Davila received money from an overseas syndicate.
Lewis and Baccus received $10,000 each from their captain as payment for their roles in the scam.
Both men were handed good-behaviour bonds and escaped conviction in September, with the magistrate finding the pair were “right at the bottom of the scheme”.
Davila encouraged his teammates to participate in betting scams for four football games between January and May 2024 but they didn’t eventuate, according to the facts.
“No mate. These guys are nervous … it’s the first final for many of them … and they’re a bit like NO,” Davila told J Col about the last attempt in May.
“You let me down mate,” the Columbian replied.
Davila appeared in Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday to plead guilty to facilitating and engaging in conduct that corrupts the betting outcome of an event.
Eight charges against him – including that he directed and participated in a criminal group – were withdrawn by prosecutors.
The former football star will be sentenced on December 19.
He appeared to foreshadow guilty pleas in a video posted on social media on September 13 about his legal proceedings.
“I wanted to make this video before 1000 things start coming out,” Davila told his followers.
“The last few years haven’t been easy but I believe the lesson has been learning acceptance (and) resilience”.
He and his teammates Lewis and Baccus were suspended by Macarthur FC after their arrests and are no longer under contracts with the team.
Davila was an elite youth talent who played at an under-20 World Cup with Mexico and was signed by English powerhouse Chelsea as a 20-year-old.
He never cracked the Blues first team and instead played in a number of leagues before arriving in the A-League Men in 2019 with Wellington Phoenix.
He won the Johnny Warren Medal as the best player in the league in 2020-21 and shifted to Macarthur after that season, where he was named captain.
In 2022, the Mexican faced heartbreak as Lily Pacheco, his wife and mother of their two-year-old son, died aged 31.
National Gambling Helpline 1800 858 858
AAP
