Because you have no idea who Jontay Porter is, I'll tell you he's the younger brother of Nuggets star Michael Porter Jr.
Jontay plays for the Toronto Raptors and he's a pretty, well, mediocre player in the NBA.
Over the past few months, Jontay has made it into the spotlight, not for his terrific play, but rather his awful performances. That, and the fact that a whole bunch of people across the country have been betting on him playing awful, and betting a lot of money on this.
Yes, you can bet on individual "player props" at some sportsbooks, including the major online ones. For instance, Jontay's brother Michael is scheduled to score about 17 points tonight against the Lakers. I can bet that he scores more points than that, or I can bet that he scores fewer. I can also bet on the number of rebounds he pulls in, blocks he makes, or steals he comes up with.
In Jontay's case up in Toronto, he had people betting on his "unders," or the fewer points/rebounds/blocks option. He was able to control his stats by either missing shots, letting his teammates collect rebounds, or simply exiting the game due to "illness" or "injury."
Well, the NBA and the casinos alike caught onto this after a while, and the NBA opened up an investigation on Porter. Here's what they found.
The NBA's investigation found that Porter purposely limited his participation in the Raptors' March 20 game against the Sacramento Kings specifically to influence the outcome of one or more bets on his performance. Against the Nets, Porter claimed he felt ill after playing just three minutes.
The NBA also found that prior to the game, Porter disclosed confidential information about his health status to "an individual he knew to be an NBA bettor." A different individual associated with Porter also bet that Porter would underperform March 20 as part of an $80,000 parlay the bettor placed with an online sports book.
That $80,000 prop bet, which would've paid $1.12 million, was frozen by the sportsbook and never paid out.
Nobody is sure yet whether Porter acted alone with a bunch of his buddies, or if this is some sort of mob activity Porter got himself into, but there were multiple people nationwide making these "under" wagers on Porter. And they made millions.
So now, after investigation, Jontay Porter has been banned FOR LIFE by the NBA.
NEW YORK, April 17, 2024 - The NBA announced today that Jontay Porter, a two-way player recently under contract with the Toronto Raptors, has been banned from the NBA. A league investigation found that Porter violated league rules by disclosing confidential information to sports bettors, limiting his own participation in one or more games for betting purposes, and betting on NBA games.
The league's investigation found that prior to the Raptors' March 20 game, Porter disclosed confidential information about his own health status to an individual he knew to be an NBA bettor. Another individual with whom Porter associated and knew to be an NBA bettor subsequently placed an $80,000 parlay proposition bet with an online sports book, to win $1.1 million, wagering that Porter would underperform in the March 20 game.
The league's investigation also found that Porter limited his own game participation to influence the outcome of one or more bets on his performance in at least one Raptors game. In the March 20 game, Porter played only three minutes, claiming that he felt ill. Due to the unusual betting activity and actions of the player, the $80,000 proposition bet was frozen and was not paid out.
In addition, from January through March 2024, while traveling with the Raptors or Raptors 905, the Raptors' NBA G League affiliate, Porter placed at least 13 bets on NBA games using an associate's online betting account. These bets ranged in size from $15 to $22,000, for a total of $54,094. The total payout from these bets was $76,059, resulting in net winnings of $21,965. None of the bets involved any game in which Porter played. Three of the bets were multi-game parlay bets that included one Raptors game, in which Porter bet that the Raptors would lose. All three bets lost.
The suspicious bets involving Porter's performance in the Raptors' March 20 game were brought to the NBA's attention by licensed sports betting operators and an organization that monitors legal betting markets.
Good for the NBA!
And good for legal gambling, without which we may have never discovered Porter's scheme.
Here's a little video I came across on YouTube concerning this investigation and the terrible basketball Porter had to play in order to make a buck (and get banned for life).
This had been going on since late January (at least), but these revelations make you wonder just how long he'd been up to this before the league started to catch on.
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