One Jontay Porter was one too many for the NBA when it comes to sports betting.
The NBA has taken the lead among American professional sports leagues as it steps into the previously restricted area of sports betting while trying to maintain the integrity of the game. The league has created guidelines and an educational program to teach everyone from league officials to players, coaches, and support staff about the risks of breaking any rules.
Breaking these guidelines can lead to a lifetime ban.
“A lot of what is happening is a lack of awareness, a lack of sophistication, what is OK and what isn’t OK,” said Baird Fogel, a California attorney who works with the sports-betting industry. “To some people, it would seem kind of a given, but for a lot of folks … it is new territory.”
This became an expensive lesson for Porter when he was playing for the Toronto Raptors.
He received a lifetime ban in April for betting on games — including betting on the Raptors to lose — and sharing confidential information with gamblers.
To prevent more cases like this, the NBA collaborates with the National Basketball Players Association to prioritize education on sports betting.
Rookies participate in a session about sports-betting awareness as part of their required training, which also covers on- and off-court topics like managing finances and interacting with coaches, teammates, and the media.
Dalton Knecht, who was drafted 17th overall by the Los Angeles Lakers this year, stated that the league does a good job of keeping the issue straightforward.
“Personally, I don’t gamble,” Knecht said after a preseason game against the Golden State Warriors in Las Vegas. “I’m not going to go gamble. They talk about it. They’ll say, ‘You can’t bet stuff’ and all that. They keep it simple.”
But it’s not just new players. Everyone who wears NBA uniforms must participate in a yearly anti-betting session run by either the league or their team. If someone fails to attend without a valid excuse, they face a fine of $100,000.
League and team staff also go through similar training.
“Maintaining the integrity of our game is paramount and has been since long before sports betting was legalized across the United States,” the league said in a statement to The Associated Press. “We have a multi-faceted compliance and monitoring program …”. However, things can get complicated.
Fogel mentioned that part of the confusion comes from the professional relationships leagues and teams have with sports-betting companies, which can make it unclear what is acceptable and what is not.
After Commissioner Adam Silver wrote an op-ed in The New York Times almost 10 years ago supporting the legalization and regulation of sports betting, the NBA became the first major American professional sports league to sign a deal with a gambling company in 2018 when it partnered with MGM. The league also made FanDuel and DraftKings official sponsors in 2021.
Teams have their own agreements as well. For instance, the reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics made a deal with FanDuel in May to sponsor a docuseries during their successful run to win their record 18th championship.
Leagues and teams are eager to take advantage of the large sums of money from these sponsorships while also ensuring that the perception of fair play in the games remains intact.
“So it’s getting harder, I think, for a player to tell what is wrong or right,” Fogel said.
Changing rules in different sports have also led to possible confusion.
Last year, the NCAA decided to consider several factors, like the amount of money on bets, when deciding what penalties to impose. The NCAA, the main governing body for college sports, also made it easier to reinstate players.
The NBA, along with the players’ union, has kept the same disciplinary rules that have been in place since shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed all states to legalize sports betting six years ago.
Now, 38 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized sports betting, and the NBA — like other leagues — is trying to keep up with these changes. Fogel mentioned that since each state has its own rules and regulations, this adds to the confusion about what is allowed.
“Look, we just went through a sea change in sports betting,” Fogel said. “These same organizations that are now embracing sponsorship deals with the Caesars and the MGMs of the world are the same ones that were on the other side of that Supreme Court decision in 2018, asking the Supreme Court not to legalize sports betting.
“It’s understandable that there’s a lot of confusion, and the best way to overcome that is through education and training.”
