Will the NBA ban Toronto Raptors’ Jontay Porter over gambling allegations?

Having now shed light on the NBA’s current investigation into allegations of improper betting on the part of Jontay Porter, the league’s commissioner has seemingly suggested that the player could very well face a significant punishment.

Adam Silver addresses Jontay Porter’s investigation

Though it’s often said that ‘no news is good news’, it does not appear to be the case where Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter and the investigation into his alleged betting habits are concerned. Indeed, the NBA has remained quite tight-lipped about the probe into irregularities related to prop bets for his statistics, that is until Wednesday when league commissioner Adam Silver addressed the situation in a Q&A session with reporters, following a meeting with the board of governors.

Silver made it clear where he stood, referring to what Porter has been accused of doing as a “cardinal sin” while admitting that the possible course of action could be to “ban him from the game.” Silver continued, doubling down on his belief that player involvement in gambling can’t be tolerated. “There is nothing more serious, I think, around this league when it comes to gambling and betting on our games and that is a direct player involvement. So the investigation is ongoing, but the consequences could be very severe,” Silver said.

What do we know about the Jontay Porter allegations?

According to reports, the league’s investigation is focused on two games in which Porter played. The first of them was on January 26th when the Raptors faced the Los Angeles Clippers. In that game, Porter played just four minutes and 24 seconds. He scored no points and made no three-point attempts but did notch an assist and three rebounds. The Raptors would later cite an eye injury as the reason why he left the game early. The second game was played on March 20th between the Raptors and the Sacramento Kings. On that occasion Porter was once again used in a limited capacity, playing just two minutes and 43 seconds, and once again exited early, with the Raptors saying he was ill. The 24-year-old scored no points on that occasion nor did he have any assists, but he did manage to pull down two rebounds.

OK, so why is that a problem?

To be clear, both games saw an unusual amount of betting on Porter’s prop bets. To be more specific, bettors saw a significant rise in profits betting the under on several prop bets based on Porter’s statistics. In the first game, there were prop lines available for Porter’s points (over or under 5.5), rebounds (4.5), assists (1.5), and made 3-pointers (0.5). In the second, Porter had lines available for roughly 7.5 points and 5.5 rebounds. Following the game in January, DraftKings released a daily report in which it stated that Porter’s 3-pointer stat was the biggest winner among all bettors on props from that night’s games. The same was indicated in the report from DraftKings after the game in March.

Now, while there are several factors that can affect how much one places on a prop bet, generally speaking, they come in between $1,000 and $2,000. According to sources, ahead of the Clippers game there were multiple accounts that attempted to place bets on Porter props that were north of $10,000, with some even going as high as $20,000. “People were trying to do whatever they could to bet Jontay Porter props [against the Clippers],” the source said. “And then, just a few days ago, the same thing. We had a bunch of people trying to bet under for more.” As things stand, Porter has missed the Raptors’ last two games for what the team has called “personal reasons.”

So, what exactly is the deal here? To be clear, the NBA has not directly stated that Porter is guilty of an offense. All we know is that the investigation is ongoing. On the other hand, given what we just established above, it’s reasonable to believe that the league is trying to determine whether Porter intentionally kept his statistics below the above-mentioned prop lines. Whether by limiting his three-point attempts or simply removing himself from a game - prop bets are only active once a player appears in a game - the end result would be the same i.e., more money. Of course, at this time it remains unclear as to whether Porter bet against himself or informed other bettors to do so, but what we can assume is that should that prove to be the case, the Raptors player could be in serious trouble. Sadly, gambling is a growing problem in professional sports as we have seen in the NFL in the last few years, and most recently with Los Angeles Dodgers sensation Shohei Ohtani and his interpreter, Ippe Mizuhara. To that end, Porter’s situation is just the latest in an increasingly longer list of players crossing the line. The question now is, what’s the NBA going to do about it?