Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter has been banned from the NBA for life over violations of the league’s rules around gambling.
The league launched an investigation into Porter in late March over “multiple instances of betting irregularities”.
The NBA has now found that the 24-year-old disclosed confidential information to bettors, manipulated his participation in multiple games to influence bets, and bet on NBA games while playing in the G League.
The investigation into Porter remains open and that it’s sharing uncovered information with federal authorities, the NBA said in a release announcing the ban.
“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 game rules are being met with the most severe punishment,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Wednesday.
The younger brother of Nuggets forward Michael Porter Junior placed at least 13 bets on NBA games from January to March.
He didn’t play in any of those games, but placed the bets with an associate’s online betting account on bets that ranged from $15 to $22,000, totaling $54,094, according to the league.
This information was easily tracked using IP addresses, location services, and even messages and phone records.
The league revealed that the total payout from those bets was $76,059, with a net winning of $21,965.
The NBA’s investigation also found that Porter revealed information about his own health to a known sports bettor before a March 20 game against the Kings.
Another bettor used the information to place an $80,000 same-game parlay bet that featured unders on Porter’s statistics and was paying $1.1 million. This bet ended up getting frozen due to suspicious activity.
During that March 20 and a game on January 26, Porter left both games early due to illness / injury and the NBA have since found that he “limited his own game participation to influence the outcome of one or more bets on his performance in at least one Raptors game.”
The Raptors said they are “fully supportive of the league’s decision to ban Jontay Porter from the NBA and are grateful for the swift resolution to this investigation. We will continue to cooperate with all ongoing inquiries.”
