Major League Soccer on Monday announced lifetime bans for former players Derrick Jones and Yaw Yeboah for betting on MLS matches.
Jones, who was playing for the Columbus Crew, and Yeboah, who most recently played for LAFC and previously played for Columbus with Jones, were placed on administrative leave pending league review of potential violations of MLS league rules in October 2025.
MLS said it had received suspicious betting alerts through integrity partners and retained the law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP to conduct an investigation. The investigation found that the players “engaged in extensive gambling on soccer, including on their own teams, during the 2024 and 2025 seasons.”
In one instance, both players bet on Jones to receive a yellow card during an October 19, 2024, match between Columbus and the New York Red Bulls. Jones received a yellow card in the 35th minute for a foul. The league said it “determined that the players likely shared confidential information with other bettors about their intent to draw yellow cards.”
MLS has worked with jurisdictions that allow betting to remove yellow and red cards as part of betting opportunities. Those efforts have been successful. There are 52 total jurisdictions and, of those, 41 allow betting. Thirty-three of those jurisdictions do not allow cards, and 15 of those changed rules after outreach from the league, an MLS spokesperson said.
MLS players also undergo training that includes information about gambling policy. That program has content created by integrity partners and players sign an agreement certifying they have completed their gambling restriction training.
MLS said 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 playing for the Columbus Crew in a friendly vs. Aston Villa in 2024 (Jason Mowry / Getty Images)
“Major League Soccer remains steadfast in its commitment to match integrity,” MLS commissioner Don Garber said in a statement. “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 won an MLS Cup and Leagues Cup with Columbus, has since signed with Qingdao Hainiu in China, where he made his debut and scored his first goal over the weekend.
This is not MLS’ first foray into policing its players for gambling. The league previously suspended Sporting Kansas City’s Felipe Hernandez in 2021 – and then terminated his contract in 2024 – for betting on MLS games.
Elsewhere across American sports, the NBA banned former Toronto Raptors center Jontay Porter for life in 2024 for gambling. Porter recently returned to pro basketball in the United States Basketball League. Several other sports have suspended players for betting dating back to a Supreme Court decision in 2018 that struck down a federal prohibition on sports betting, including the NFL, NHL, NBA and MLB and multiple college sports.