Raptors player bet on NBA games and has been thrown out of the league
Jontay Porter won’t be playing for the Toronto Raptors anymore — or any other NBA team, for that matter.
Today, the NBA announced that it had banned Porter for life due to his involvement in one of the league’s largest-ever betting scandals.
Today, the NBA announced it had concluded the investigation. It added that Porter had bet on 13 NBA games using an associate’s account from January through March 2024, including one Raptors game, which is a direct violation of the league’s betting policy.
The following has been released by the NBA. pic.twitter.com/h2TIkaE7xs
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) April 17, 2024
Back in March, an ESPN story with a joint byline of David Purdum, Brian Windhorst, and Adrian Wojnarowski pointed out two games involving Porter — taking place on January 26 and March 20 — that had an unusually high number of prop bets placed on the player.
In both instances, Porter left the game with less than five minutes played, with underbets on Porter’s individual stats reportedly being the highest moneymaker for NBA bettors those two nights on the DraftKings sportsbook. The NBA’s report confirmed that Porter had limited his game participation in order to underperform to help an associate’s betting account.
The NBA confirmed that an $80,000 bet on Porter on March 20 was ultimately not paid out.
“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,” the league’s release said. “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.”
Yesterday, an Action Network report showed that Porter had operated a FanDuel VIP account that had reportedly placed millions in bets on sports from 2021 through 2023, but did not connect him to betting on basketball.
Porter, who signed a two-way contract with the Raptors earlier this year, played 26 games with the team before being put on leave due to the investigation.
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