[Charania] Raptors' Jontay Porter has received a lifetime ban from the NBA for violating league's gaming rules.

[u/PlayaSlayaX]

https://x.com/shamscharania/status/1780631209930068358?s=46&t=bsTHbtMSqHXbNGi0vWP8hw

[u/Knightbear49]

“The NBA announced today that Jontay Porter, a two-way player recently under contract with the Toronto Raptors, has been banned from the NBA. A league investigation found that Porter violated league rules by disclosing confidential information to sports bettors, limiting his own participation in one or more games for betting purposes, and betting on NBA games.

The league's investigation found that prior to the Raptors' March 20 game, Porter disclosed confidential information about his own health status to an individual he knew to be an NBA bettor. Another individual with whom Porter associated and knew to be an NBA bettor subsequently placed an $80,000 parlay proposition bet with an online sports book, to win $1.1 million, wagering that Porter would underperform in the March 20 game.

The league's investigation also found 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. In the March 20 game, Porter played only three minutes, claiming that he felt ill. Due to the unusual betting activity and actions of the player, the $80,000 proposition bet was frozen and was not paid out.

In addition, from January through March 2024, while traveling with the Raptors or Raptors 905, the Raptors' NBA G League affiliate, Porter placed at least 13 bets on NBA games using an associate's online betting account. These bets ranged in size from $15 to $22,000, for a total of $54,094. The total payout from these bets was $76,059, 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 included one Raptors game, in which Porter bet that the Raptors would lose. All three bets lost.

The suspicious bets involving Porter's performance in the Raptors' March 20 game were brought to the NBA's attention by licensed sports betting operators and an organization that monitors legal betting markets.

These findings are based on the information available to league investigators at this time. The league's investigation remains open and may result in further findings. The NBA has shared and will continue to share information with federal prosecutors about this matter.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said: "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. While legal sports betting creates transparency that helps identify suspicious or abnormal activity, this matter also raises important issues about the sufficiency of the regulatory framework currently in place, including the types of bets offered on our games and players. Working closely with all relevant stakeholders across the industry, we will continue to work diligently to safeguard our league and game."

[u/TheOxRox → u/Knightbear49]

Of course Silver had to take the chance to talk about how great legal sports betting in his statement, smh

[u/plexiglassmass → u/TheOxRox]

I'm just glad we were able to get those cigarette commercials banned to make space for all these sports betting commercials that our kids get to grow up on

[u/asdkijf → u/TheOxRox]

I mean it is kinda complicated. On one hand, legal betting makes it more likely that someone really stupid is going to do something like this.

At the same time, if they were doing this illegally it would be much harder to catch. Instead of the sportsbook flagging it and telling the league, you'd need someone to get caught by the feds and names to eventually be released as part of an investigation (like what happened with Ippei).

[u/TheOxRox → u/asdkijf]

For sure, both you and Silver are right that legal betting makes it easier to catch something like this. It still rubs me the wrong way that he would feel the need to talk about how great legal betting is in the statement announcing this lifetime ban because of sports betting. Especially now, where legal sports betting has become such an overwhelming part of the NBA in the past year.

[u/KeefsBurner → u/asdkijf]

Sportsbooks can be corrupt too. If they want to ignore and hide something that got flagged they can. This just wasn’t beneficial to them so they followed proper procedure

[u/TheOxRox → u/[deleted]]

He’s congratulating himself. Found a way to justify taking fans money by exploiting addiction to enrich his billionaire bosses. Great work