According to Ben Morse of CNN on Wednesday, Toronto Raptors power forward Jontay Porter of Columbia, Missouri has been banned by the National Basketball Association for life after it was determined he had violated the league’s rules on betting. The NBA determined Portay betted on NBA games, and disclosed confidential information to bettors.
The biggest controversy came on March 20 in a 123-89 Raptors loss to the Sacramento Kings at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario. Porter notified a NBA bettor about his health status, which was considered confidential. The bettor placed an $80,000 bet that Porter would underperform. After Porter did not record a point and had two rebounds in two minutes and 43 seconds worth of action, the bettor subsequently won $1.1 million. However, the $80,000 bet has since been frozen due to unusual actions of the player during the game.
It was also determined that Porter bet on 13 NBA games this season. He bet a total of $54,094 and won $76,059. Porter also bet on three Raptors games that they would lose. He did not play in those games, and it was three games the Raptors actually won this season. As a team, Toronto only won 25 games all season, as they missed the playoffs.
One of the last times we saw a professional sports league in North America ban a player for life for betting on the sport he was involved in came in baseball. In 1989, Major League Baseball came down hard on one of the game’s greatest hitters of all-time, Pete Rose. Meanwhile, in 2007 NBA referee Tim Donaghy resigned after allegations he bet on basketball games and made controversial calls that impacted the results in games.
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