Months after the Jontay Porter scandal rocked the NBA, the league wants sports betting operators to make a key change in player prop offerings.
The pro basketball league has asked sportsbooks to prohibit wagers on individual players who are on two-way or 10-day contracts, sources told ESPN.
The ban would go into effect when the NBA kicks off the 2024-2025 season on Oct. 22.
"DraftKings is in alignment with the NBA and we are thankful for the opportunity to engage with them on the topic,” a DraftKings spokesperson told Covers on Friday. "We look forward to tipoff and engaging with passionate NBA fans all season long.”
A FanDuel spokesperson told Covers that the online operator “adheres to all policies of our league partners."
The NBA banned Porter for manipulating his playing time in April. He was on a two-way contract with the Toronto Raptors at the time, meaning he was bouncing back and forth between the NBA and the G League and not under a high-paying, long-term deal.
Teams can also regularly sign players to temporary, 10-day contracts when they need injury replacements, bench depth, or want to test a player for a potentially longer deal.
Good example of bad
The NBA has an example of things that can go wrong with players on shortened contracts.
Porter conspired with a group of known bettors through a messaging app to take himself out of two NBA games, allowing the under on his player props to hit to clear gambling debts for a player who made $2.8 million in his playing career.
Porter and four other men were charged this year with conspiracy to commit wire fraud charges.
On Jan. 26, Porter left a game against the Los Angeles Clippers four minutes in because of a reaggravated eye injury. He had no points, no 3-pointers made or steals, and recorded one assist with three rebounds. A relative of a co-conspirator made $75,000 after wagering on unders on Porter’s props while another co-conspirator cashed in for $40,250 on a $7,000 parlay.
The bettors linked up in Atlantic City to place more than $1 million in wagers during a March 20 game in which Porter removed himself for a claimed illness. He had no points or assists and grabbed three rebounds in three minutes.
The NBA began investigating Porter and found that he was indeed manipulating playing time and betting on league games, including his own team’s when he wasn’t playing, leading to the lifetime ban.
Supporting wagering
This would be a bold move by the NBA, which has been at the forefront of sports betting in the U.S., even before PASPA was overturned in 2018.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver began openly supporting legalized wagering in the U.S. 10 years ago, and the NBA was the first professional U.S. sports league to partner with a sports betting operator.
The NBA and its teams have since made numerous marketing and advertising deals with sportsbooks. However, Silver wants federal involvement, not just state-regulated, sports betting.
“I was in favor of a federal framework for sports betting. I still am," Silver told the Associated Press this week. “I still think that the hodgepodge of state by state, it makes it more difficult for the league to administer it.
“I think that on the downsides of sports betting, they certainly exist, and I think we have to pay a lot of attention to that. I think where we're hearing it in multiple categories, certainly you see incidents of underaged people betting. We have to pay a lot of attention to that, what's potentially going on at college campuses, certainly people betting over their heads."
