On Monday, March 25th, news came out that the NBA is investigating Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter for his role in some “betting irregularities” in recent months. There was suspicious activity specifically involving Porter’s player prop bets, and he has been listed as out for “personal reasons” in each of Toronto’s last two games.
Although nothing is official yet, Porter, the brother of Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr., appears to have been playing a role in helping bettors cash some of his Unders. In a meeting with the Los Angeles Clippers on January 26th, Porter left the game after four minutes played because of an “eye injury.” Also, on March 20th, he left after three three minutes of action against the Sacramento Kings because of an “illness.” In both games, Porter failed to go Over most of his point, rebound and assist totals — as well as 3-pointers made. And DraftKings Sportsbook’s reporting showed that Porter’s prop betting was heavily bet on both nights — which is somewhat abnormal for a low-profile player that is averaging 13.8 minutes per game.
Unfortunately, we’re starting to see more and more of these types of stories in sports. In fact, this was just the second-biggest sports betting story of the day, with Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani holding a press conference to try and distance himself from the accusations being made against his translator, Ippei Mizuhara. Don’t be surprised if more of these come out in the coming months. But look for the NBA to drop the hammer on Porter. Adam Silver is very interested in the business of sports betting, but he deeply cares about the integrity of the game. A harsh punishment for Porter, a player on a two-way contract, could deter the rest of the league’s players from making mistakes like this one.
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