Gambling in sports has been increasingly prevalent in the past few years, especially in the National Basketball Association. It’s been heavily promoted from content creators that make NBA related videos to the national broadcasts themselves being plastered with advertisements that promote sports betting. With this recent development of a player being involved in a betting investigation that stemmed from unusual betting activities reported by sportsbooks (The companies that host the sports betting).
The NBA announced it was conducting an investigation on Jontay Porter of the Toronto Raptors regarding some unusual activity reported from several sports books about a bet on Jontay Porter. Specifically a game on March 20th between the Toronto Raptors and the Sacramento Kings, there was an over/under bet set for 0.5 three pointers made which happened to be the biggest money making bet of that night. This was as a result of Porter playing a total of 4 minutes in this game before being taken out “due to an eye issue,” according to CBS Sports.
However, this wasn’t the only instance in which activity like this was seen in regards to a bet involving Jontay Porter, and these instances resulted in an investigation being initiated.
Adam Silver, the current Commissioner of the NBA had something to say about the situation and how he could possibly handle it. “But it’s a cardinal sin, what he’s accused of in the NBA, and the ultimate, extreme option I have is to ban him from the game,” he said.
“Because there’s nothing more serious, I think, around this league when it comes to gambling: betting on our games. And that is a direct player involvement. And so, the investigation is ongoing, but the consequences could be very severe,” he added. It goes to show just how seriously the NBA is taking the issue; the fact that the commissioner is considering his option to ban Jontay Porter to set an example for the rest of the players in the league.
Arguably, it was inevitable that something like this would happen considering how betting companies have been advertised heavily. This situation only confirms the fact that betting is happening within the players, and some may even go as far as saying that the refereeing officials are betting on games and fix some of their decisions during games so that they benefit off of it. However, there’s been no evidence of this type of behavior other than the fact that referees have fixed games back in the early 2000s.
The Jontay Porter – as well as the Shohei Ohtani situation in the MLB – really put into question the integrity not, not only of the players, but of sports leagues as a whole. After all, they are all businesses that need to make their own money, hence the amount of betting advertising you see.
Here are some resources in case you or someone you know may be struggling with a gambling addiction.
You can call the NYS OASAS HOPEline at 1-877-846-7369 or a national hotline at 1-800-GAMBLER.
