Jontay Porter Rumors

The National Basketball Players Association views the Porter case as an outlier and has seen no evidence other performance manipulation in the league, according to a spokesperson. The NBPA is, however, concerned about the abuse athletes face from disgruntled bettors.

ESPN

At which point it became clear that Moose_NBA, Twitter's Malik Beasley Profit was more than just Facebook friends with alleged Jontay Porter co-conspirator Ammar Awawdeh. Moose was his relative, his cousin. This is where it takes us back now to the legal documents as we try to connect all the dots here. Right. So, generally observing the following in the Jontay Porter legal documents, quote, "A relative of the defendant, Ammar Awawdeh, whose identity is known to me, placed a $10,000 parlay bet through betting company one on the under for player 1's three-pointers, assists, and steals." It goes on to talk about how the relative won $85,000, netting a profit of $75,000. And so just saying that Ammar Awawdeh in terms of the information he was sharing, who he was bringing in to the thing he was already caught up in. We don't know which family member it is. They're anonymous according to federal prosecutors, but family is literally mentioned in the federal investigation a number of times.

YouTube

I had to follow up with Mustafa to make sure he had his story straight on this. So I asked him again. You did not get information on Malik Beasley from Ammar Awawdeh who was part of the Jontay Porter case? No. Like I said, I got it off of Reddit. Do you have that Reddit forum that you got it from that you could show me? I could probably find it. Yeah. Would you be fine with me searching it and then getting it to you on Twitter? Yeah. Yeah, that'd be great. All right, we'll do that one. Despite the evidence from his own posts and his own brags to having a connection to someone in this he claims zero knowledge and that he got it from he got it from Reddit. Yeah, he said he got it from Reddit. Uh, and it was public. And after I hung up with Mustafa Omar, who promised me to hit me back on Twitter and send that Reddit post that would clear him of all of this and just say, "Hey, they had it. It wasn't me." What happened next was I logged back into my Twitter account and I DM'd him back a reminder being like, "Hey, uh, yeah, if you can just grab that Reddit post and send it back to me." Bloop. I got an error message and that error message said message not sent. Sending direct message failed. I thought my internet was down or that he turned off his DMs, but nope. Nope, guys. He had shut down his account at 1237474849 lowercase a.

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Shams Charania on Malik Beasley: The league is cooperating with the federal prosecutors. So the league, essentially, I mean this is a federal matter now, like this is this is in the hands of the courts now. Q. So does that mean? It's a big enough amount of money that it's federal, that it would be some sort of scheming, some conning somehow, how, why would it be? Is this the same as Jontay Porter as well? Charania: I mean, to my knowledge, it's the same kind of district area in New York. I again don't know how vast how big this one is in comparison to Jontay Porter, but the league has said at this point their measure is to work and cooperate with federal authorities.

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According to law enforcement officials, it was not the first time Jontay Porter had faked a medical issue to get himself removed from a game and depress his stats, and they said he had been keeping the four men aware of his intentions in a Telegram chat. When Porter told the four men that he would come out early from a Jan. 26, 2024 game with an eye injury, Timothy McCormack bet $7,000 on a parlay that Porter wouldn’t hit his totals for points, rebounds, assists and 3s. He won $40,250. A relative of one of the other men won $85,000. Two months later at the DraftKings Sportsbook in Atlantic City, according to court records, the men again bet heavily on the under on Porter’s props; Porter played just two minutes and 43 seconds and finished with zero points, zero assists and two rebounds.

New York Times

Terry Rozier, a far more prominent NBA player currently with the Miami Heat, is under federal investigation for his performance in a 2023 game while a member of the Charlotte Hornets—his case is tied to Porter’s, three independent sources familiar with the probes tell Sports Illustrated. The NBA said it investigated Rozier and did not find any violations, and the league is cooperating with the Eastern District. Rozier has not been charged with a crime.

Sports Illustrated

The scheme that ensnared Porter was fairly simple: He amassed significant gambling debts, and he repaid them by sabotaging his own performance. Porter’s salary at the time was around $400,000. Sources familiar with elements of the federal and NCAA inquiries tell SI that authorities are investigating potential links between the same gambling ring and wagering on at least nine college games across last season and this season. Investigators have flagged unusual wagering on games involving at least five college teams—and they are prepared for that number to increase.

Sports Illustrated

A gambling ring currently under federal investigation for its role in two NBA betting cases also was involved in unusual wagering activity on at least three men's college basketball programs this season, sources told ESPN on Monday. Sportsbook accounts connected to the gambling ring bet against North Carolina A&T, Mississippi Valley State and Eastern Michigan in games this season, sources said. Some of the same accounts also placed large wagers on prop bets involving former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter in two games during the 2023-24 NBA season and veteran guard Terry Rozier in 2023, when he was with the Charlotte Hornets, sources said. Porter has admitted to manipulating his performance during the games for gambling purposes; Rozier has declined to comment on a reported investigation into unusual betting on his performance in a select game.

ESPN

A gambling ring currently under federal investigation for its role in two NBA betting cases also was involved in unusual wagering activity on at least three men's college basketball programs this season, sources told ESPN on Monday. Sportsbook accounts connected to the gambling ring bet against North Carolina A&T, Mississippi Valley State and Eastern Michigan in games this season, sources said.

ESPN

Some of the same accounts also placed large wagers on prop bets involving former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter in two games during the 2023-24 NBA season and veteran guard Terry Rozier in 2023, when he was with the Charlotte Hornets, sources said. Porter has admitted to manipulating his performance during the games for gambling purposes; Rozier has declined to comment on a reported investigation into unusual betting on his performance in the select game.

ESPN

Federal prosecutors have been investigating whether veteran NBA player Terry Rozier manipulated his performance as part of an illegal sports betting scheme. The inquiry into Rozier is part of a wider government probe into a sprawling ring of gamblers and poker players who have allegedly rigged games across the sports landscape, people familiar with the matter said. The same investigation has already led to a criminal charge and a lifetime ban from the NBA for former Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter.

Wall Street Journal

Authorities believe some of the people who arranged for Porter to fix his performance in two games last season had inside information that prompted them to bet large sums of money against Rozier a year earlier. The emergence of suspicious betting activity on another NBA game demonstrates that the scheme that resulted in Porter’s expulsion—and the government’s investigation—is more expansive than was previously known. The difference this time is that the person who attracted the unusual wagers is far more prominent than Porter, a fringe player who spent his NBA career trying to hold on to a job. Rozier is an established presence who has been a solid contributor in the league for a decade and is partway through a contract that will pay him nearly $100 million. And the government’s investigation will likely continue to grow: Authorities are exploring the gambling ring’s potential ties to college basketball as well, people familiar with the probe said.

Wall Street Journal

Rozier hasn’t been charged with a crime or accused of wrongdoing. It couldn’t be learned if investigators have determined whether he was deliberately helping bettors. “In March 2023, the NBA was alerted to unusual betting activity related to Terry Rozier’s performance in a game between Charlotte and New Orleans,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said. “The league conducted an investigation and did not find a violation of NBA rules. We are now aware of an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York related to this matter and have been cooperating with that investigation.”

Wall Street Journal

U.S. Integrity notified sportsbooks—and the NBA—that unusual wagers were coming in on Rozier failing to meet certain statistical benchmarks, such as the total number of points or rebounds he would record in the game. Some of the sportsbooks stopped accepting bets on Rozier’s stats that day, people familiar with the matter said. During the previous two seasons, U.S. Integrity sent out just three alerts about NBA games, people familiar with the matter said. Two of those were about games involving Porter. The other was the game involving Rozier. Rozier started for the Hornets against the New Orleans Pelicans that night seemingly fit to play. He had been one of Charlotte’s best players, averaging 35 minutes and 21 points a game. In this game, however, Rozier played just over nine minutes before being substituted out during a timeout. He left with a foot injury and didn’t return. Rozier would miss the remaining eight games for the struggling Hornets, who at the time were owned by Michael Jordan.

Wall Street Journal