NBA Bans Jontay Porter for Gambling on League Games
The NBA has banned Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter from the league for violating gambling rules.
The league’s investigation, which the NBA says “remains open and may result in further findings,” found Porter limited his participation in games, disclosed confidential information to sports bettors and placed bets on NBA games. The league has shared the investigation results with federal prosecutors.
“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 said in a statement.
Porter, 24, placed “at least” 13 bets on NBA games totaling $54,094 from January to March 2024, ranging from $15 to $22,000. The total payout from the bets was $76,059, with net winnings of $21,965. Porter, the younger brother of Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr., played with Raptors 905, Toronto’s G-League affiliate, and the NBA team during this period.
Porter didn’t play in any of those games. Three of the bets were multi-game parlays. One of them included a bet from Porter that the Raptors would lose.
Silver said Porter’s actions were “a cardinal sin” during the NBA board of governors meeting and added it was within his rights, thought it would be extreme, to ban Porter from the league.
The league also said Porter limited his participation so that outcomes would be swayed, citing Toronto’s March 20 game against Sacramento, a 123-89 loss, as an example. Porter played just three minutes in that game and claimed he “felt ill.”
A bettor, who the league says Porter associated with and knew to bet on NBA games, placed an $80,000 parlay prop bet to win $1.1 million if Porter “underperformed” during the March 20 contest. The bet was not paid out because of the unusual activity.
The Action Network reported Tuesday that Porter had a VIP account with FanDuel in Colorado where he placed over 1,000 wagers. These occurred from 2021 to 2023.
Silver’s statement said the case may call for tighter regulation of the betting industry. “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,” Silver said.
Silver, who was granted a contract extension through the end of the decade, has banned two people during his tenure as commissioner. O.J. Mayo was the last NBA player to be banned from the league before Porter after violating the league’s substance abuse policy in 2016. The first was Donald Sterling, the former owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, after he made racist statements in 2014.
(This story has been updated in the sixth, ninth and 11th paragraphs to provide additional information.)
