The Jontay Porter’s lifetime ban for violating league gambling policies, multiple outlets reported Friday.
Among the changes reportedly under consideration is prohibiting prop markets on two-way players like Porter, who are on contracts that find them shuttlecocking between the NBA and the G-League and are far less lucrative than those of their NBA-only peers.
Porter was en route to earning $415,000 this season when he was found to have placed at least 13 bets on the NBA using an acquaintance’s betting app. Three of his bets involved parlays banking on the Raptors to lose, although he did not play in those three games.
In two other games he did play in, Porter left early with supposed injuries, which would have resulted in a handsome payday for some associates of his who bet the under on his single-game statistical props had sportsbooks not flagged the wagers as suspicious and voided them.
To that end, the NBA and its sports betting partners are reportedly considering not allowing bettors to take the under on player props, meaning they could only bet the over in what would amount to a one-way market.
Should salary threshold be considered? 401r40
In a March 26 headline prior to Porter’s punishment being handed down, Sports Handle posed the question: “Why Would Sportsbooks Even Offer Jontay Porter Props?”
With Friday’s news, that question has been at least partially answered. But with sportsbook executives interviewed for the March story saying they rarely, if ever, offer individual performance props on players outside a team’s regular seven- or eight-man rotation, perhaps a minutes per game threshold should be adopted.
Moreover, a minimum salary threshold might be an idea worth considering, as the more an athlete earns, the less likely he is to be tempted by sketchy side income that might result from sandbagging or, in the event that unders are banned, gunning away at his team’s expense.
