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The National Basketball Association’s (NBA) sports-betting partners will no longer offer “under” prop bets on any players subject to a two-way or ten-day contract, a result of the gambling scandal that led to the lifetime ban of Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter.
The agreement has been adopted by major sports-betting companies such as Penn Entertainment’s ESPN BET, Caesars Sportsbook, BetMGM, DraftKings and FanDuel, all of whom are authorized operator partners of the NBA.
“We adhere to all policies of our league partners,” a FanDuel spokesman said in an email Monday (October 21).
A Penn Entertainment spokesman also confirmed that ESPN BET would no longer be offering these “under” prop wagers.
“DraftKings is in alignment with the NBA, and we are thankful for the opportunity to engage with them on the topic. We look forward to tipoff and engaging with passionate NBA fans all season long,” a DraftKings spokesman said.
Porter was on a one-year, two-way contract with the Toronto Raptors and its G League minor league affiliate at the time that he was investigated for his involvement in a betting scandal that involved him disclosing confidential information to sports bettors.
The investigation also found Porter had limited his participation in games for betting purposes and bet on NBA games through a proxy.
A two-way contract comes with a significantly lower salary than the standard NBA league minimum, paying up to $559,782 if a player is under contract for the full season. By comparison, a league minimum salary for a player with a year of prior experience, as Porter had, would be $1.8m.
Porter, 24, subsequently pleaded guilty to conspiracy to committing wire fraud stemming from the investigation. He was issued a lifetime ban by the NBA on April 17 for violating the league’s gambling policy.
In announcing Porter’s ban, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said there was “nothing more important than protecting the integrity of NBA competition,” while reiterating his concern over bet types offered by regulated U.S. sportsbooks. He hinted that the NBA may be more active in restricting certain bet types going forward.
“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,” Silver said in April.
As first reported by ESPN and confirmed Monday by Vixio GamblingCompliance, the ban on these prop bet types was the result of discussions between the NBA and its betting partners to find a workable solution, so the league does not run into the same situation again.
“We think this is a good outcome,” said a sports-league source with knowledge of the discussions.
Despite the Porter betting scandal, Silver has no regrets about being one of the first commissioners in U.S. professional sports to advocate for the legalization of sports betting outside Nevada.
Silver began lobbying for legalized sports betting with a 2014 New York Times op-ed titled “Legalize and Regulate Sports Betting,” expressing his support for the issue. Legal sports betting became a reality beyond Nevada in May 2018 when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal ban known as the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA).
“I’d say when it comes to sports betting, I certainly don’t regret writing that op-ed piece and being in favor of legalized sports betting,” Silver told the Associated Press last week.
Silver stressed that “you can’t turn the clock back” when it comes to legalizing sports betting.
“I think, as I said at the time, with the advent of the internet, widely available sports betting online … that if we don’t legalize sports betting, people are going to find ways to do it illegally.”
Currently, 38 states and the District of Columbia have legalized and regulated mobile and retail sports betting.
Porter was the first professional athlete in North America to be banned for life for gambling-related offenses since Major League Baseball banned all-time hits leader Pete Rose in 1989. Both the National Football League and National Hockey League have suspended players for gambling offenses but have not taken the step of a specified lifetime ban.
