Former A-League star spared jail over betting scandal

A former highly regarded A-League soccer captain has escaped with a fine after corrupting the betting outcomes of games with a dubious overseas figure.

Ex-Macarthur Bulls skipper Ulises Davila, 34, liaised with a Colombian known as "J Col" in the betting scheme which involved attempting to fix yellow cards in five games across the 2023 and 2024 seasons.

The Mexican enlisted teammates Clayton Lewis and Kearyn Baccus by arranging for them to earn yellow cards to satisfy a desired betting outcome.

On Wednesday, Davila was convicted and fined a total of $11,000 at Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court.

He pleaded guilty in October to facilitating and engaging in conduct that corrupts the betting outcome of an event.

Magistrate Marguerite Vassall said while none of Davila's conduct impacted the score of any game it was still to be denounced.

"It to some extent brings the integrity of the game into disrepute," she said.

Lewis and Baccus were carded for various offences during the games, including pushing an opponent in the chest or making a poor tackle.

Before a match on December 9, 2023, 50 suspicious bets were placed through gambling site BetPlay on Macarthur FC receiving at least four disciplinary cards, the agreed facts say.

Winning payouts totalled more than $200,000 with around $26,500 in Mexican pesos paid into a foreign bank account.

There is no evidence Davila received any funds from the overseas syndicate involved.

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 and his two teammates were suspended by Macarthur FC after their arrests and are no longer under contracts with the team.

The former captain 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 after that season to Macarthur, where he was named captain.

In a social media video posted in September, Davila said his lesson from facing court had been "acceptance (and) resilience".

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