Jontay Porter has been banned for life from the North American professional basketball league NBA for betting fraud. The Toronto Raptors player passed on confidential information to bettors and placed bets on NBA games himself. The league, which had opened an investigation against the 24-year-old, announced this on Wednesday.
“There is nothing more important than protecting the integrity of the NBA,” Commissioner Adam Silver is quoted as saying in the statement. Therefore, “flagrant violations” of the league’s guidelines would be punished with the “harshest punishment.”
In addition, the brother of Denver Nuggets star Michael Porter Jr. intentionally allowed himself to be substituted at least once in order to make betting winnings possible, it said. This happened on March 20, after which an organization that monitors legal betting markets raised suspicions with the NBA.
NBA boss Silver explained that they were working “in close cooperation with all relevant representatives of the betting industry” to “protect our league and our game”. The investigation into the case has not yet been fully completed.
No professional in the NBA has been banned in connection with gambling in 58 years.