The NBA investigating Jontay Porter for alleged illegal betting fraud

Betting is escalating in the NBA at breakneck speed since the competition forged partnerships with the houses that promote them. Criticism in recent weeks has led the league to move internally and remove any rotten apples. One of the first investigations concerns the players. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Brian Windhorst and their gambling expert, David Purdum, there is already a player in the spotlight: a case has been opened to find out If Jontay Porter, who is participating this season with Toronto Raptors, has been part of a betting fraud as the main reason.

Suspicious moves

Two particular games have caught the attention of the league, alerted by the betting houses themselves:

On January 26 (against the Clippers) the bet that won the most money that day in the NBA was a three-point shot by Porter. In the game he did not shoot three-point and was also below his statistics in points and rebounds. He left the game after four minutes saying that an eye injury he had from the previous game, against the Grizzlies, had aggravated, although in the game that followed he was back at full strength and spent 19 minutes on-court.

On March 20 (against the Kings) the maneuvers that generated the most profits that night in the NBA were those referring to Porter. In the game he attempted a single shot and grabbed two rebounds before asking for a substitution for what was classified, without further explanation, as an illness. In this case, bettors also went en masse for lower-than-normal statistics for Porter.

Porter has since stepped aside his own accord citing personal reasons. He didn’t play in Monday’s 88-96 defeat to the Nets.

Suspicious movements involving Jontay Porter were detected in the betting houses on two occasions. The posts about statistics of this style, about specific players, were ten times higher than usual, according to ESPN. The power forward, brother of current champion Michael Porter (Nuggets), has a dual contract with the Raptors for which he is earning $415,000 this season.

Porter spent 2020/21 with Memphis and, after that, then spent two years in the G-League looking for an opportunity that has now come his way. “I never doubt my players’ injuries,” Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic said, adding, “I just know that no one wants to have this type of situation in their team, we will have to deal with it.”

The NBA constitution specifically states that “any person who, directly or indirectly, wagers money or anything of value on the outcome of any game” will receive a non-appealable punishment from the commissioner such as “a fine, suspension, expulsion and/or perpetual disqualification from further association with the league.”