Trophy Season
NBA, NHL Playoffs; Jontay Porter is free to bet on them now; Do you bet on women's sports?
One of the best/worst times of the year has arrived.
It’s one of the best if your NHL or NBA team has reached the postseason. Actually, that sort of makes it one of the worst, too, with all the late weeknight games and a high potential for rage/anxiety eating and drinking.
Here’s looking at you, Boston - as if you need an excuse - with the Celtics and Bruins right back in the hunt for trophies, albeit without the sheen of inevitability that wore off pronto this time last year.
The Hurricanes, Panthers, and Rangers enter the Stanley Cup playoffs as betting favorites. But there are numerous other clubs in their +800-ish neighborhood.
In the NBA, however, the Celtics (+145) are clear favorites, with Denver at +300. From there, enjoy the speculation opportunity with multiple groups of bearded men in the +1500 range.
AP Photos; Brant James illustration
NBA Odds
NHL Odds
Speaking of which, FanDuel has interesting markets on the leading goal scorer for each series.
Jake Guentzel at +320 against the Islanders? Yes, please.
Call 1-800-GAMBLER if you have a gambling problem. 21+: All content herein is intended for audiences 21+.
Jontay Porter Is a Former NBA Player
Jontay Porter was banned from the NBA on Wednesday after a league investigation concluded the Toronto Raptor two-way player bet on NBA games, “limiting his participation in one or more games” and giving actionable information to gamblers.
The NBA concluded that Porter, 24, disclosed confidential information about his health “to an individual he knew to be an NBA bettor” before a March 20 game. Another person that Porter knew to be an NBA bettor, the league claims, then made an $80,000 parlay prop bet with an online sports betting app to win $1.1 million if Porter came in under certain statistical marks. That bet was voided and reported to the NBA when Porter removed himself from the game after just three minutes, claiming he was ill. The NBA statement suggested that Porter could have tanked his props in at least one more Raptors game.
Porter also was found to have placed 13 bets — ranging in size from $15 to $22,000 for a total of $54,094 — on the NBA from January through March while playing for Toronto or its G League developmental team. None, the NBA said, involved games in which he played. But he picked the Raptors to lose three times in parlays. All of them lost.
Porter yielded a net of $21,965 from his bets this year.
Somewhere today, a professional athlete is probably thinking hard about whether they’re going to place that next bet. The one they know could end their career.
There is no more feigning ignorance about the gambling rules for their league, no matter how mainstream or available sports betting has become.
Porter’s outcome should terrify them. Maybe it dissuades them. What if that’s temporary?
Maybe they don’t use that VIP account at a legal sportsbook anymore. Perhaps they know a guy who knows a guy. That would make their next bet doubly troublesome and the threat to the integrity of sports that Porter’s case was not.
The system worked in rooting out Porter, Calvin Ridley, and all the other professional athletes who were not as clever or informed as they believed before sportsbooks or integrity services noticed.
This will happen again, the punishment part. The crime part may be happening right now unless that athlete thinks very hard. And closes the app.
AP Photos; Brant James illustration
NBA Handled Crisis Perfectly, Exec Says
“I don’t see one thing the NBA did wrong in handling this crisis. The key thing is: something will get out pretty quickly [in regards to these incidents], and when you’re seen as the organization responsible, if you don’t get out and communicate the right way, and communicate your values, that’s when you get in trouble. The [NBA] communicated what they stand for immediately, and followed through.”
Ed Moed, marketing communications expert
MLB/Ohtani? Swing and a miss.
It’s Never Over Until It’s Over Pay Me!
If you made a futures bet at Betfred on Manchester City winning the English Premier League before last Sunday, go get your money.
Yes, there are six games left in the season, and Arsenal and Liverpool are just two points behind the Gallagher brothers’ favorite club. But Betfred boss, Fred Done, is, well, done with it.
Done foresees a City runaway after watching the Gunners and Never-Walk-Aloners find proverbial banana peels last weekend.
This is the ninth time Done has pulled the stunt. It didn’t work out the first time. Betfred paid out on Manchester United when it built a 12-point lead in 1998, only for the Red Devils to falter and drop the title to Arsenal by a point.
bet365’s Early Payout Explained
From Erica Renee Davis:
Sometimes, even the most “fool-proof” moneyline bets get the best of us. Well, now bet365 has the fix for those “rare” instances in which our moneyline wager should’ve, could’ve, but didn’t hit.
The bet365 Early Payout promo guarantees a victory if a team is up by a certain amount. Read on to learn more about the promotion for current users.
Sportsbooks Adding More Women’s Markets
From Tebearau Egbe:
With a focus on providing additional options for female sports fans, DraftKings is gradually broadening its product line to include games like basketball, ice hockey, tennis, and soccer.
Odds ….
… and enders
Delaware (all three counties) could get more sportsbook options
Roughly $659 million was wagered in the first 21 days of legal sports betting in North Carolina.
BetRivers renewed its content deal with New York radio personality Mike Francesa if you’re into that.
Just one week until …
By BRANT JAMES, Gaming Today Senior Writer