The NBA is reaching an agreement with gambling partners to eliminate side bets on lowest-paid players, according to the report

The NBA has reached an agreement with its gambling partners to eliminate proposition bets on players who, according to The Athletic’s Joe Vardon report, “earn the least money,” players who are either on two-way deals or Player 10 -day contracts.

Notably, sportsbooks and the NBA’s betting partners – FanDuel, DraftKings and BetMGM – will no longer offer “under” bets on these players, which is clearly a response to the Jontay Porter situation.

Porter, who received a two-way contract from the Toronto Raptors in December 2023, received a lifetime ban after the league found Porter guilty of “disclosing confidential information to sports bettors, restricting his own participation in one or more games for betting purposes, and betting on NBA games.”

The reason these prop bets are taken off the board for players who don’t make a lot of money is simple: they would be the ones who would have an incentive to manipulate their production to win bets, while players who make millions of dollars would have an incentive to manipulate their production Salary workers have no reason to risk their well-paying careers on a bet.

Porter earned approximately $56,000 while splitting time between the Raptors and their G League affiliate.

From The Athletic:

According to an NBA investigation that led to Porter’s expulsion, Porter gave a confidential tip about his health to a person he knew to be a sports bettor before the Raptors’ March 20 game against the Sacramento Kings. A third person, linked to both Porter and the original recipient of Porter’s health information, placed an $80,000 parlay bet and won $1.1 million. This bet hinged on the prediction that Porter would perform worse against the Kings.

To ensure the bet went through, the league decided that Porter pulled out of the Kings game after just three minutes, claiming he was ill.

The investigation also found that from January to March, while splitting games between Toronto and its G League affiliate Raptors 905, Porter placed at least 13 bets on NBA games through an affiliate’s online betting account. Although none of these bets were on games in which Porter played, he was betting on the Raptors to lose as part of a parlay bet. Stakes ranged from $15 to $22,000, totaling $54,000.

According to the league, he made nearly $22,000 in profit from the bets.

Here’s where you can see the problem and how this could continue to happen if the league and its betting partners didn’t agree to eliminate these bets, which, let’s be honest, are completely at the mercy of the performance of these players with incentives based on their own numbers refuel.

Let’s say your over/under for rebounds is two. Simple, you just grab a rebound and then stay off the ball for the few minutes you’re on the floor. Bet any amount, over whoever you want, on your under and you can double or triple your entire annual salary in one evening.

It’s too easy to manipulate, and the league is right to pre-empt another potential Porter situation because gambling occupies a central role within the league and its audience.