Two former A-League players avoid conviction in yellow-card betting scandal
Kearyn Baccus and Clayton Lewis receive two-year conditional release orders; ordered to repay $10,000; Ulises Davila, the alleged mastermind, to face nine charges in court.
Two former A-League players were spared a criminal conviction in Sydney's Central Local Court on Wednesday after admitting to deliberately receiving yellow cards in exchange for $10,000. Kearyn Baccus and Clayton Lewis were sentenced to two-year conditional release orders, similar to a good-behaviour bond, and ordered to repay the $10,000 they received for the December 9, 2023 match between Macarthur FC and Sydney FC. The scheme involved bets placed on the Bulls to collect at least four yellow cards in that match, with payouts reported to total more than $167,000 through the South American betting site Betplay.
Magistrate Michael Blair said the two players were "right at the bottom of the scheme" orchestrated by their then-captain Ulises Davila. The agreed facts indicate Davila recruited Lewis because of his gambling addiction and offered "a little bit of extra coin." There was no evidence the pair knew about the wagers or how much they would be paid, Blair said.
Following their arrests, all three Macarthur players were suspended by the club. Davila and Baccus have since been released from their contracts; Baccus is now working as a truck driver. Lewis's contract status was not disclosed in court filings. The prosecution had urged a harsher sentence for Baccus because he sought to hide the payment by routing it through a car purchase, but Blair rejected that argument, describing the incidents as low-level offences.
Davila, the alleged mastermind, is accused of acting as a conduit between the Macarthur players and a Colombian criminal known as 'J Col.' He has not yet entered pleas to nine charges and is due to face court on September 25. The charges center on the December 2023 match and the related betting activity that produced payouts exceeding $167,000. A separate court hearing is expected to determine the scope of the allegations against Davila.
The case highlights ongoing concerns about integrity in Australian football and follows a broader pattern of investigations into betting-related misconduct in the A-League, where clubs and players face heightened scrutiny over on-field actions that could be influenced by wagering.