Two MLS players banned for life for gambling on games, including their own
Major League Soccer on Monday introduced lifetime bans for former players Derrick Jones and Yaw Yeboah for betting on MLS matches.
Jones, who was enjoying for the Columbus Crew, and Yeboah, who most not too long ago performed for LAFC and beforehand performed for Columbus with Jones, had been positioned on administrative depart pending league assessment of potential violations of MLS league guidelines in October 2025.
MLS mentioned it had acquired suspicious betting alerts by means of integrity companions and retained the legislation agency Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP to conduct an investigation. The investigation discovered that the players “engaged in extensive gambling on soccer, including on their own teams, during the 2024 and 2025 seasons.”
In one occasion, each players guess on Jones to obtain a yellow card throughout an October 19, 2024, match between Columbus and the New York Red Bulls. Jones acquired a yellow card within the thirty fifth minute for a foul. The league mentioned it “determined that the players likely shared confidential information with other bettors about their intent to draw yellow cards.”
MLS has labored with jurisdictions that permit betting to take away yellow and pink playing cards as a part of betting alternatives. Those efforts have been profitable. There are 52 complete jurisdictions and, of these, 41 permit betting. Thirty-three of these jurisdictions don’t permit playing cards, and 15 of these modified guidelines after outreach from the league, an MLS spokesperson mentioned.
MLS players additionally bear coaching that features details about gambling coverage. That program has content material created by integrity companions and players signal an settlement certifying they’ve accomplished their gambling restriction coaching.
MLS mentioned there was “no evidence that was identified that suggested any of these betting activities affected the outcome of a match.”
Derrick Jones and Yaw Yeboah enjoying for the Columbus Crew in a pleasant vs. Aston Villa in 2024 (Jason Mowry / Getty Images)
“Major League Soccer remains steadfast in its commitment to match integrity,” MLS commissioner Don Garber mentioned in a press release. “The league will continue to enforce its policies, enhance education efforts, and advocate for the elimination of yellow card wagering in all states to protect the integrity of our competition for clubs, players, and fans.”
Yeboah, who received an MLS Cup and Leagues Cup with Columbus, has since signed with Qingdao Hainiu in China, the place he made his debut and scored his first purpose over the weekend.
This isn’t MLS’ first foray into policing its players for gambling. The league beforehand suspended Sporting Kansas City’s Felipe Hernandez in 2021 – after which terminated his contract in 2024 – for betting on MLS video games.
Elsewhere throughout American sports activities, the NBA banned former Toronto Raptors middle Jontay Porter for life in 2024 for gambling. Porter not too long ago returned to professional basketball within the United States Basketball League. Several different sports activities have suspended players for betting courting again to a Supreme Court resolution in 2018 that struck down a federal prohibition on sports activities betting, including the NFL, NHL, NBA and MLB and a number of school sports activities.
