More betting manipulation due to the NBA's strong opening for sports betting?

Sports betting and betting providers are now omnipresent in the NBA. Hardly any other North American league incorporates such offers into its game operations to the same extent as the top basketball association in the USA. Several unusually high tips on certain player bets have now come to light, in which the professional in question is said to have been involved. Experts do not see this as an isolated case, but rather a far-reaching problem in which the strong connection between sport and sports betting could not be unconnected.

Since the legalisation of sports betting in the USA in 2018, the question of the integrity of sport, particularly in the NBA, has increasingly come to the fore. Despite extensive monitoring and control measures, there have been both suspected and (recently) confirmed cases of betting fraud in the NBA, which experts see as just the tip of a very large iceberg.

In 2007, it became known that former NBA referee Tim Donaghy was at the centre of an extensive betting scandal in which he himself manipulated games in order to make personal betting profits. Even though this case took place before legalisation, it shook the NBA to the core and prompted it to implement even stricter measures to prevent betting manipulation. But are they effective enough?

After 2018, there were certainly some reports of unusual betting patterns or anomalies in certain games that led to investigations. These were often subtleties, such as sudden changes in odds or unexpectedly high bets on certain events. To date, however, no far-reaching scandals comparable to the Donaghy case have come to light.

In April 2024, however, very conspicuous bets were found on Raptors professional Jontay Porter. The part-time or bench player was apparently actually involved in betting manipulation involving tens of thousands of US dollars. The NBA works closely with sports betting providers. Advertising or sponsorship is quite normal - some bookies have even set up stationary terminals in the halls. Gambling experts and the press suspect a connection between the "gambler culture" surrounding the league and (possibly) increasing betting fraud. Event betting (prop bets) and bank players or prospective professionals are the focus of attention.

167 million dollars: sports betting is a huge business in the NBA

The National Basketball League (NBA) is already a billion-dollar business without the contributions of sports betting providers. However, since the US Supreme Court lifted the ban on commercial sports betting in 2018, turnover has increased significantly once again. Especially as the NBA has opened up to such operators like no other professional sports league in North America. There are direct partnerships with several betting portals, adverts can be found en masse during TV broadcasts and the teams also work with the industry. As recently as April, we reported on the glaring figures for gambling advertising during NHL and NBA broadcasts.

The ARD sports programme recently quoted sports lawyer N. Jeremi Duru from the American University in Washington DC as follows: "Sports betting is absolutely mainstream among fans; it has become an integral part of American sports culture."

The bookmakers not only promote their offers in the commercial breaks or on the pitches, boards etc., but are also increasingly present in the halls themselves. In some places, betting terminals are actually available for visitors to place their bets directly at the event.

Is the "Jontay Porter" case just the tip of the iceberg?

Jontay Porter is (or was) a part-time player for the Toronto Raptors. In his position, he spent a lot of time on the bench and was only used occasionally. In the few games in which he played actively, there were anomalies in connection with certain event bets, i.e. tips that do not relate to the final result but to certain incidents in the games. These include, for example, penalties, the number of three-pointers or the playing time of individual professionals.

Porter had particularly high bets on the latter segment in two of the Raptors' matches. The betting was that he would remain below his statistical average and a large sum was invested, according to the US media. According to the investigating authorities, winnings of around 40,000 euros would have resulted if the bet had been successful. Porter was in fact only on the court for a few minutes in the games in question.

The NBA called in the FBI, which subsequently arrested a man from Brooklyn, New York, at the beginning of June. The charge is betting fraud. The investigation revealed that Porter is said to have regularly passed on information to the betting scene and also placed bets himself. According to media reports, both were done via an intermediary. The reason for this was allegedly betting debts. He apparently wanted to "buy his way out" through his actions. According to US media reports, in addition to the suspect from Brooklyn, there are said to have been other backers who placed bets on short seasons.

The result for Porter: the professional was banned for life by the NBA. It is not yet clear whether he will also be charged. Jeremi Duru has a clear opinion on the incidents - you can read it at Sportschau:

"It is naive to believe, says Duru, that Jontay Porter will remain an isolated case in the NBA. The integrity of the game, and therefore the business basis of professional sport, is already at risk."

Professional basketball players are also increasingly criticising the strong cooperation with the gambling industry: they sometimes see themselves as mere objects of betting and openly demonstrate their opinion that betting harms the game. In politics, calls for an independent control commission are growing louder. The investigators should be paid for by the professional leagues themselves.

Will event betting be banned?

Following the events surrounding Porter, the head of the NBA, Adam Silver, spoke of "serious offences" and "severe penalties". It was announced that the regulations for the betting market would be reviewed. The uncompromising sanction against Porter in the form of a complete ban for life is interpreted as a kind of warning signal. Nobody should come up with similar ideas.

In general, there are discussions about banning bets on bank players, as reported by ESPN. Event betting is also critical. Legal expert Duru says:

"There is an unmanageable number of them, prop bets are impossible to control. That's why they make the game so vulnerable to manipulation."

However, a ban is unlikely because, as the Sportschau also concludes, the betting providers would veto it. Event betting is simply too popular and therefore a source of income for the bookies, who would not "give it up" without a fight. The strongest arguments are that many people would simply switch to the black market if it were abolished, which would ultimately be even more dangerous.

Part-time players and aspiring professionals seem particularly at risk

Jontay Porter is or was an NBA professional, but was a so-called bench player. Accordingly, he only received a comparatively low salary of 400,000 dollars and often had to switch back and forth between different team divisions of the Raptors. He did not really have good prospects for a long-term contract. For experts like N. Jeremi Duru, it is only logical that players like Porter are more susceptible to such machinations than established stars due to such or similar circumstances. Since sports betting is everywhere in the NBA, it is comparatively easy for potential fraudsters.

The situation is similar for collage basketball players, who receive no salary at all. Nevertheless, millions are bet on their matches season after season. The young talents could quickly be tempted to take a slice of this big cake by manipulating bets. There have been several suspected cases of this recently, as reported by Sportschau. In addition, Jeremi Duru, an expert on match-fixing in US sport, says that quite a few young basketball players develop problematic betting behaviour at an early age.

Conclusion

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