If you bet on 0.5 of this year's NBA gambling scandals, get ready to cash in. The league is investigating Toronto Raptors two-way player Jontay Porter over a questionable large cash out on a prop bet, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reports. More suspicions have come to light regarding the extent to which Porter was involved in gambling in relation to his personal statistics.
First, a little background in case you missed it. On Monday night, Woj reported that the NBA is investigating “prop bets involving Porter on games on January 26th and March 20th.” As you can imagine, the details are pretty awful.
The Jan. 26 game against the Los Angeles Clippers sparked interest in prop Porter's under, with his numbers set for about 5.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.5 assists that night. There was also an over/under for Porter's 3-point shooting, which was 0.5.
That night, Porter left the game after playing just four minutes because the Raptors announced that the eye injury he sustained four days earlier against the Memphis Grizzlies had worsened. Porter didn't score against the Clippers, but he did have three rebounds, one assist, and didn't attempt a 3. This means all props are underhit.
The next day, as part of its daily report on betting results for its users, DraftKings Sportsbook announced that Porter's 3-point shot under was the biggest payout for players who bet on NBA player props in that night's game. He said that he was a person.
Two days later, Porter played 19 minutes and had 12 points, seven rebounds and three assists.
On March 20, in a game against the Sacramento Kings, Porter played just three minutes before being ejected after the Raptors announced he was sick and did not return. He attempted one shot but didn't score and had two rebounds.
Sportsbooks set his over/under at approximately 7.5 points and 5.5 rebounds.
It… doesn't look good, but it gets worse. Daily Hive's Adam Lascaris did a deep dive into gambling activity from the account Porter was running. It also included details of the Twitter account @TayTrades11, where Porter tweeted about gambling and cryptocurrencies.
How do we know it was a porter? Well, because he wanted to make sure people were following his…real alternative gambling accounts and not scammers.
@taystrades11 Please report this fake trading account. If you receive a DM from him, block it and ignore it.My actual trading account is @TayTrades11
— Jontay Porter (@JontayPorter) May 3, 2022
On that account, Porter tweets about EZ Parley, which he participated in, and also runs a Discord server called The Financial Cloud, where subscribers can get financial advice on things like betting and cryptocurrencies. Looks like I was able to pay for it. Wise investment:
Jontay has a feud with telling people what to trade and bet on. You have to pay $49.99 to see the premium room, but the main room is discussing the NBA and Jon Tay, and people are thanking Jon Tay for the prize money.This is wild, wild stuff pic.twitter.com/CnGDE4zx9p
— Raptor Moments (@raptormoments) March 26, 2024
All of this is pretty damning, but the point here isn't Porter's alleged cheating on player props. Yes, the NBA will probably use him as an example. Since he's on the fringes of the league anyway, they'll be able to put a hammer down on him with little business downside to deter other players, and yes, his questionable conduct is clearly: is. It looks terrible considering the integrity of the game. And yes, it seems that stupidity runs in the family.
But it's worth pointing out here that something like this happened: clearly As these leagues become more involved with betting companies and sports betting becomes more and more open and more and more accessible, it will happen someday (editorially, perhaps this is where SB Nation is at DraftKings). I should point out that there is).
Currently, we are seeing the Shohei Ohtani situation in the MLB and the Porter situation in the NBA. The NFL has already had to issue a gambling ban. Did we all really expect highly competitive athletes to find out how betting is incorporated into sports? Every studio show now has a segment sponsored by a gambling company on over/unders and other props, and ESPN may even start its own sportsbook. — and given that you can legally access it with just a few swipes of your smartphone in nearly every state you play in, wouldn't you want to get in on the action yourself?
Regarding such matters, the idiom “Sunlight is the best disinfectant” has long been widely accepted around the world. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver alluded to this in a 2014 New York Times editorial, saying, “I believe sports betting should be brought out of the basement and into the sunlight, and properly monitored and regulated.'' I believe,” he wrote. Now, in the case of claims like the one facing Porter, Silver's defenders could argue that regulation (apparently) did its job here. But are we really arguing that this is better?Once this situation is captured, people will begin to trust the results of these games. more?
I certainly don't think so, so maybe it's time to add some supplement to the long-accepted wisdom. Maybe sunlight isn't actually the best disinfectant. Maybe it has disinfectant in it. Porter, Ohtani, and other scandals are sure to surface in the coming weeks and months, so maybe that's what all sports leagues should look into next.
Because in this climate they are all definitely getting dirty.
