Michael Porter Jr. became the first current NBA player to publicly acknowledge how easy and tempting it could be to manipulate NBA betting on an individual’s performance.
The Brooklyn Nets forward, whose brother Jontay Porter was banned for life last year for doing exactly that, said on the One Night with Steiny podcast that some players might see an opportunity to cash in for people close to them.
“Think about it, if you can get all your homies rich by telling them ‘yo, bet $10,000 on my under — this one game imma act like I got an injury and imma sit out, imma come out after three minutes’ and they all get a little bag because you did it one game,” Porter said.
“That is so not okay, but some people probably think like that. They come from nothing and all their homies have nothing and they’re like ‘bro if I come out of this game after three minutes and y’all all hit on my under, we’re all getting a little bag,’ you know what I mean?”
Porter, who will make $38 million this season, was speaking hypothetically and did not suggest he has ever done this himself.
NBA players face gambling-related penalties
Jontay Porter was banned from the NBA for life last year after the league found he shared confidential health information with bettors and limited his own participation for betting purposes.
Court filings outline how sportsbooks and integrity monitors uncovered suspicious betting activity on player prop markets tied to Porter’s individual stats underperforming. Those bets were placed by co-conspirators he owed gambling debts to before he exited games early with fabricated injuries. Porter pleaded guilty last July to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and prosecutors have recommended a prison term of up to 4 years.
The NBA is also investigating Terry Rozier and Malik Beasley for potential betting-related violations. It has been reported that sportsbooks and integrity monitoring firms flagged betting patterns in those cases, as well.
“Obviously my brother went through his situation, Malik Beasley’s going through a situation right now, Terry Rozier was in some hot water,” Porter said. “But the whole sports gambling entity, it’s bad and it’s only going to get worse.”
Push to ban player props
In Ohio, regulators are drafting rules to ban player-specific micro markets after Gov. Mike DeWine called for a full ban on player props across professional sports.
The move follows two separate investigations into Cleveland Guardians players accused of manipulating performance for betting purposes.
DeWine says he plans to press the NFL, NBA, WNBA, NHL, MLB and their unions to agree to league-wide bans. Several states have already outlawed player props for college sports after NCAA lobbying tied to harassment and integrity concerns.
The case against banning player props
Sportsbooks, leagues, and integrity monitors argue that legal betting makes it possible to identify suspicious activity like the Porter case. Without regulated markets, they say, such activity would largely move offshore and go undetected.
“Recent instances of suspicious activity … were flagged by legal, regulated operators working hand-in-hand with professional leagues and integrity monitors,” said a spokesperson for the American Gaming Association. “Prohibition doesn’t stop betting — it stops oversight. Illegal operators won’t honor bans, won’t partner with leagues, and won’t protect players or fans.
Ahead of the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision that allowed states to legalize sports betting, the AGA projected the four major US leagues could collectively earn more than $4.23 billion annually from regulated wagering. Since embracing sports betting, the NBA and NFL have split roughly half of all gambling-related revenue between teams and players.
One of the most popular bets
Player props account for nearly half of all wagers at some sportsbooks, according to Citizens, and have grown alongside fantasy sports, which primed fans to track individual performances.
They’re also a core driver of parlays and same-game parlays. Those high-margin wagers, promoted by sportsbooks, make up more than 60% of bets in some states, per Morgan Stanley.
Porter Jr. said that no matter how a player performs, someone with money on them is going to lose.
“The crazy part is you can’t win anymore, because if I do too good I’m messing up the people that bet on the under, and if you bet on the over — you know what I’m saying? You’re messing up some people’s money, if they’re betting on your under or over — you’re messing up some people’s money.”
