NBA officials issued a heavy fine, and Raptors player Joan Te Porter was banned for life.
An official NBA statement reads that a league investigation found that Porter violated league rules by disclosing confidential information to sports bettors, restricting himself to one or more games for betting purposes and placing bets on NBA games.
The league's investigation found that Porter disclosed confidential information about his health to an NBA bettor he knew before the Raptors' March 20 game. Another person with whom Porter was associated and knew he was an NBA bettor then bet $80,000 to win $1.1 million when he bet that Porter would not perform well in the game on March 20.
The league's investigation also found that Potter was restricting his participation in the game. In the March 20 game, Potter played just three minutes, claiming he was not feeling well. Due to unusual betting activity and data from players, $80,000 proposition bets were frozen and not paid.
In addition, from January to March 2024, Porter used a colleague's online betting account to place at least 13 bets on NBA games while traveling away with the Raptors or Raptors 905, an affiliate of the Raptors Development League. These bets range from $15 to $22,000, totalling $54,094. The total payout for these bets was $76,059 and the net prize money was $21,965. None of the bets involved any of the games in which Potter had played. Three of the bets were multi-game bets, including a Raptors game where Porter bet the Raptors would lose and all three bets lost.
Licensed sports betting operators and an organization that oversees the legal betting market drew the NBA's attention to Porter's suspicious bets during the March 20 Raptors game.
These findings are based on information currently available to Coalition investigators. The coalition's investigation is not yet conclusive, and further results may be available.
"Nothing is more important than protecting the integrity of our fans, our teams and everyone involved in our sport, and that's why Joan Potter is punished with the most severe punishment for blatantly violating our game rules," said NBA commissioner Shaw. While legal sports betting creates transparency and helps identify suspicious or unusual activity, the matter also raises important questions about the adequacy of the current regulatory framework, including the types of bets offered on our matches and players. We will continue our efforts to protect our leagues and competitions in close collaboration with all relevant stakeholders across the industry. ”