It might turn out to be nothing, but a new report details the extent to which the Toronto Raptors’ Jontay Porter was involved in sports betting. Porter, who is under investigation for his potential role in suspicious NBA wagering, reportedly bet millions of dollars on FanDuel from 2021-2023, this according to Action Network.
Action Network has “multiple sources with direct knowledge” of Porter’s betting activity. One said that FanDuel did not take any wagers from him on either NBA or college basketball. He allegedly placed over 1,000 bets using a VIP account in Colorado.
If Porter did not wager on NBA games or games related to the NBA such as WNBA or G-League games, then he did not do anything against league rules. But this volume of wagering being reported is still not a great look for someone who is under investigation for what would be a very serious breach.
The investigation centers around two games from this season, which heads into the playoffs this week. For a January 26 game against the L.A. Clippers, sportsbooks set modest over/under totals for Porter, who is a backup center on a two-way contract. The under bets won easily, as he left the game after four minutes after allegedly experiencing problems with an eye injury suffered in a previous game.
Then, on March 20 against the Sacramento Kings, Porter again left the game early, this time because he was allegedly ill. As before, the under props were winners, as one would expect when a player only gets three minutes.
Normally, that wouldn’t necessarily be weird, just unfortunate for Porter and the team. But in both cases, a sportsbook source told ESPN that the betting on Porter unders was way above and beyond what was expected.
“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.”
The maximum online sportsbooks tend to allow on player props is $1,000-$2,000. Some bettors, though, tried to wager $10,000-$20,000 on Porter unders. After both games, DraftKings posted on X that Jontay Porter unders were the biggest winners for its customers.
Thus, there is intense suspicion surrounding those two games. It could be completely coincidental that Porter left the contests early, but the unusual betting on props that benefited from his early exits looks really bad.
