How Jontay Porter orchestrated failed NBA gambling scheme — and is paying heavy price

Jontay Porter’s road to the gambling world is a troubled path.

Porter was banished from the NBA on Wednesday for betting on basketball through an intermediary, the league announced.

The league said that Porter placed at least 13 bets on the NBA, winning $21,965 with an associate’s online betting account, which is something that is easily tracked using IP addresses, location services, and even messages and phone records.

On March 20th, Porter was DraftKings’ biggest loss in the entire player prop market, having ranked No. 1 in their moneymakers category for the Toronto Raptors.

In that game against the Kings, Porter pulled himself, citing an illness.

He concluded the game with just two minutes and 43 seconds played, grabbing two rebounds in that time and all of his player props going under.

Porter also checked himself out of a Jan. 26 game against the Clippers after playing just four minutes and 24 seconds.

Most of the red flags relate to these two games specifically.

However, the NBA said their investigation “remains open and may result in further findings” as they share information with federal prosecutors.

The NBA also mentioned Porter bet against the Raptors as part of a parlay while a member of the team, but he did not play in the game and the bet ended up losing.

One bettor on that March 20 game, wagered $80,000 on a 13/1 parlay to win $1.1 million featuring all of Porter’s unders.

The bet was not paid out and voided by DraftKings Sportsbook, the NBA announced in their statement on Wednesday.

On March 25th, the NBA said they were “looking into it” when asked about Porter, with DraftKings stating that there were abnormal prop bets on him.

The following day, The Post reported that Porter had promoted gambling on basketball during March Madness 2022.

While the league’s ongoing investigation continued, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver explained that Porter was facing a lifetime ban on April 10, having committed the “cardinal sin” if found guilty.

On April 16, the Action Network reported that Porter operated a VIP account on FanDuel Sportsbook where he allegedly was wagering millions of dollars.

Now Porter faces the ultimate punishment for his misdoings, being removed from the NBA entirely.

The shotty get-rich-quick scheme was quite clear from the league and sportsbooks’ perspective, considering Porter, who has a known history of gambling, was gaining quite a bit of steam in terms of money bet in the player prop market.

He rarely had prop bets even offered on him, so to see two games that he took himself out of the game for such massive liabilities against the sportsbook is a clear sign of problems involving Porter.

A bench player will never have much liquidity in the prop market making a situation like this easy to spot.

Betting on the NBA?

The real concern is a future star being corrupted by the world of gambling, but that seems unlikely given the massive salaries that come in on these players.

For now, the legal gambling world steals a win from the jaws of defeat in the fight against corruption in sports.