Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter implicated in sports gambling investigation

The GIST: The Toronto Raptors’ 11-game losing streak isn’t the only thing plaguing their mediocre season — fringe player Jontay Porter is now at the center of a sports gambling investigation.

The details: The NBA is looking into unusual prop bets involving Porter. A prop bet involves wagering on specific aspects of a game, like how many points a player will score.

• On January 26th and March 20th, an unusually high number of bettors wagered the “under” on Porter props, meaning an influx of bets believing he would not hit his relatively low average stat lines including points, rebounds, assists, and three-pointers.

• Porter played less than four minutes in both of those games before exiting due to either illness or injury. He did not reach the stats set in the prop bets, so anyone who bet the “under” won big.

• But because multiple accounts tried to place bets over $10K and $20K on these props (which are usually limited to max $2K bets), it caught bookkeepers’ attention.

Zooming out: The NBA is now investigating whether or not Porter purposefully tanked in those games. This comes at a time when professional athlete involvement with sports betting is under increased scrutiny, and at least one NBA head coach is speaking out about the dark side of sports gambling.

• Shortly before Monday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets, Raptors head coach Darko Rajaković became aware of the NBA’s probe, and Porter was removed from the lineup. It’s unknown if he will return before tonight’s 7:30 p.m. ET game against the NY Knicks.