The NBA announced Wednesday that Jontay Porter has been banned after an investigation found that he violated gaming rules installed by the league.
Porter is a two-player who was recently under contract with the Toronto Raptors, according to a news release from the NBA. The NBA conducted an investigation that found that Porter had been releasing confidential information to sports bettors and also bet on some games himself.
He is the second person to be banned by Commissioner Adam Silver, according to The Associated Press. Now-former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling was banned in 2014.
The investigation started at the end of March. According to ESPN, the investigation started after sportsbooks noticed some irregular betting in two of the Raptors’ games. Porter left both of those games after just a couple of minutes.
The investigation found that he placed at least 13 bets on NBA games with an online betting account set up through an associate, ESPN reported. The bets were between $15 and $22,000. The league said that it was a total of $54,094. The total payout from the bets was $76,059 which was about $21,965 net winnings.
“You don’t want this for the kid, you don’t want this for our team and we don’t want this for our league, that’s for sure,” Raptors President Masai Ujiri said after the news of the ban, according to the AP. “My first reaction is obviously surprise, because none of us, I don’t think anybody, saw this coming.”
“There is nothing more important than protecting the integrity of NBA competition for our fans, our teams and everyone associated with our sport, which is why Jontay Porter’s blatant violations of our gaming rules are being met with the most severe punishment. While legal sports betting creates transparency that helps identify suspicious or abnormal activity, this matter also raises important issues about the sufficiency of the regulatory framework currently in place, including the types of bets offered on our games and players. Working closely with all relevant stakeholders across the industry, we will continue to work diligently to safeguard our league and game,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said.
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