The NBA issued a lifetime ban to former Toronto Raptors center Jontay Porter on Wednesday for violations of the league’s gambling rules.
An NBA investigation found that Porter violated league rules by disclosing confidential information on his injury status to sports bettors, the league wrote in Wednesday’s statement.
In turn, Porter limited his own participation in one or more games for betting purposes, according to the investigation. Porter, a two-way player with the Raptors’ organization, also wagered on NBA games, the investigation found.
The league’s investigation also determined that Porter limited his own game participation to influence the outcome of one or more bets on his performance in at least one Raptors game.
“There is nothing more important than protecting the integrity of NBA competition for our fans, our teams and everyone associated with our sport, which is why Jontay Porter’s blatant violations of our gaming rules are being met with the most severe punishment,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver wrote in the statement.
Disseminating injury info to a bettor? 1s1eh
On March 20 against the Kings, Porter left the game early after playing for only three minutes. Porter finished without a point on 0-for-1 shooting from the floor. At the time, the Raptors announced that Porter left the game early due to an unspecified illness.
An individual with whom Porter associated and knew to be an NBA bettor placed an $80,000 parlay to win $1.1 million, the NBA said in the statement. At least one leg included a prop wager that Porter would underperform the total in the March 20th game, according to the league.
The NBA handed down the lifetime ban one day after Sports Handle and The Action Network reported that Porter maintained a VIP betting at FanDuel’s Colorado sportsbook. Porter placed millions of dollars in sports wagers at FanDuel, according to two sources with direct knowledge of his activities.
Porter did not wager on NBA or college basketball games at FanDuel, one source told Sports Handle.
Among VIP bettors in Colorado, Porter did not approach the top of the heap in of aggregate losses, a source told SH. Porter's lapsed in 2023
“I don’t want to call it a leaderboard, but of our biggest losers in Colorado, [he was] nowhere close,” the source noted.
— Matt Rybaltowski (@MattRybaltowski) April 16, 2024
Last week, the Colorado Division of Gaming issued a directive to commercial sportsbooks requiring them to immediately report any wagering on NBA-d games by Porter. A deadline to report any NBA betting activity by Porter expired on Monday at the end of business.
A division spokesman did not respond to Sports Handle‘s request on Wednesday. Beyond FanDuel, Sports Handle reached out to several major sportsbooks this week for clarification on whether Porter maintained a VIP . At least one Top 6 national operator indicated that Porter did not appear in the company’s database.
While traveling with the Raptors or Raptors 905, the Raptors’ NBA G League , Porter placed at least 13 bets on NBA games using an associate’s online betting . The bets ranged from $15 to $22,000, for a total of $54,094, the NBA said in the statement. All 13 bets were placed over the first three months of this year.
The wagers returned a total payout of $76,059, according to the NBA, resulting in net winnings of $21,965. None of the bets involved any game in which Porter played. Three of the bets were multi-game parlay bets that contained one Raptors’ game, in which Porter bet that the Raptors would lose. Porter lost all three wagers, according to the league statement.
Porter is the first NBA player to receive a lifetime ban for gambling in decades. The NBA suspended former Fort Wayne Pistons forward Jack Molinas in 1954 for betting on his team in college. A purported mastermind of a subsequent match-fixing scheme, Molinas served as a key figure in the 1961 college basketball point-shaving scandal.
While future Pro Basketball Hall of Famer Connie Hawkins was expelled from Iowa for his role in the scheme, he was never arrested in the matter. Hawkins vehemently denied any point-shaving allegations. Hawkins ed the NBA’s Phoenix Suns in 1969, several years after settling an antitrust lawsuit with the league. Under the suit, Hawkins alleged that the NBA effectively blackballed him in light of the match-fixing allegations. In July 2007, former referee Tim Donaghy resigned from the NBA amid reports on an FBI investigation into claims that he wagered on league games.
The suspicious betting trends on the props involving Porter were brought to the NBA’s attention by several licensed sports betting operators and an organization that monitors legal betting markets, the league said. The league’s investigation remains open and may result in further findings, according to the statement. The NBA has shared and will continue to share information with federal prosecutors about the matter, the league noted.
An NBA league spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Sports Handle on Wednesday afternoon.
This is a developing story
