Banned! Porter pays the price for betting on own team
Porter ban, Dutch online vote, Alabama’s last chance, UK crypto rules, regtech focus – Yaspa +More
Lifetime ban for NBA player who bet against his own team.
In +More: IGaming study, BettingJobs’ Jobsboard.
A Dutch parliamentary vote causes consternation.
There’s a last bid to try and break the deadlock in Alabama.
The regtech focus is instant bank payment provider Yaspa.
Come to the end of the road, still I can't let go.
Lifetime ban for Jontay Porter
Please get my bags for me: Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter has been banned from basketball for life after violating gambling rules. Following an investigation, the league found Porter guilty of “disclosing confidential information to sports bettors, limiting his own participation in one or more games for betting purposes and betting on NBA games.”
It also emerged the 24-year-old had a VIP account with FanDuel, out of Colorado, which placed more than a thousand wagers totaling millions of dollars between 2021 and 2023.
Sources told Action Network that FanDuel didn’t take any wagers on the NBA or college basketball from Porter, and the activity stopped weeks before he signed a contract with the Toronto Raptors.
Silver severity: “There is nothing more important than protecting the integrity of NBA competition for our fans, our teams and everyone associated with our sport, which is why Jontay Porter’s blatant violations of our gaming rules are being met with the most severe punishment,” said NBA commissioner Adam Silver in a press release.
Uh-oh: "While legal sports betting creates transparency that helps identify suspicious or abnormal activity, this matter also raises important issues about the sufficiency of the regulatory framework currently in place, including the types of bets offered on our games and players," he said.
Under pressure: A report from ESPN first highlighted suspect betting patterns linked to Porter’s player props in two games earlier this year, with unders landing huge winners on DraftKings. Porter last played on March 22, and was inactive for the remainder of the season following a probe into the irregularities.
According to the report, Porter “disclosed confidential information about his own health status” to someone he knew was a punter.
Another individual then wagered $80,000 on a parlay bet that would have won $1.1m if Porter hit the under on his player props.
Porter removed himself from that game after less than three minutes because of illness.
Due to the unusual activity, the bet was frozen and never paid out.
I bet on losing dogs: DraftKings alerted the league, which sparked the investigation. It emerged that Porter “placed at least 13 bets on NBA games using an associate’s online betting account” from January to March of 2024. The player wagered $54,094 and won $76,059, resulting in net winnings of $21,965.
None of the bets involved games in which Porter was playing, but three did concern the Raptors in multi-game parlay bets, including one in which Porter backed his own team to lose.
The investigation is ongoing and may turn up more allegations, the NBA said, adding that it has shared its findings with federal prosecutors.
The Porter case “raises the problematic issue of leagues partnering/doing business with gambling companies while having a different policy/approach with others,” said Bob Elgidely, a partner at Fox Rothschild law firm, who has represented tennis players banned for wagering.
The case is also likely to fan the flames of the debate surrounding college prop bets.
Recall, NCAA president Charlie Baker recently called for a nationwide ban and various states have already enacted bans of this type.
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A gateway, a hope: A new study funded by an industry lobby group has projected regulated iGaming in New York could rake in more than $18bn in revenue in the next four years. The Analysis Group study on behalf of the Sports Betting Alliance also predicted that iGaming would generate $9.2bn for Illinois, $3.9bn for Louisiana, $5.5bn for Maryland and $5.4bn for Virginia should they legalize iGaming.
Researchers based their projections on the impact of iGaming in the six US states where it is currently legal, sports-betting data and a consumer behavior analysis.
IGT and casino tech provider Acres have resolved a legal dispute over patents related to cashless wagering in casino systems. Both parties issued statements announcing the end of the litigation and that they have plans to work together in future.
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Dutch vote causes consternation
Ball of confusion: The Dutch House of Representatives has voted to ban “high-risk” online gambling, which translates as “online slots”, stop all online advertising of gambling and to introduce credit risk checks.
The Netherlands banned television and print advertising in 2023 and this would extend the ban to online marketing.
Weerwind up: Despite being approved by a majority of representatives, motions must be approved by the relevant minister, as well as the Senate, to become law. Minister for legal protection Franc Weerwind will make the ultimate decision on whether the ban is implemented and has previously warned MPs against making such a move.
Sudden impact: The Dutch politicians did enough to spook Entain interim CEO Stella David, who cited the challenging marketing conditions in her Q1 address to analysts on Wednesday. “I think what happened overnight with the House representatives just proves that point that there is a lot of volatility in the Netherlands. And how it all pans out is somewhat in flux,” said David.
While David went on to say that she believed Entain had covered the risk, she also said she was not very confident of significant improvement.
The Netherlands sits on Entain’s list of troublesome jurisdictions with the UK and Germany.
Hold your horses: The lawmakers might have jumped the gun, with a review of the country’s Gambling Act due from the Ministry of Justice and Security later this year.
Dice roll in Alabama
Whatever it takes: With no agreement on new gambling laws between Alabama’s two chambers, lawmakers will make a last bid to try and break the deadlock. The fate of sports betting and multiple casinos in the Heart of Dixie will be negotiated after the Senate voted to send the matter to committee and appointed members to take part.
A once sweeping set of measures spread across two bills stalled in March as senators began stripping out key aspects of the proposals, which promised a lottery, sports betting and up to 10 new casinos.
The Senate has fought to remove sports betting and casinos located off tribal land.
Does your conscience bother you? Views are mixed on whether an agreement can be struck, local media reported, given the scale of the changes to be agreed with just six meeting days remaining. Anti-gambling sentiment has been rippling through the state in recent weeks via coordinated media campaigns.
Any gambling proposal would have to be approved by both three-fifths of lawmakers and a majority of voters.
Proposals to launch a lottery in the state were rejected in 1999.
Another new area of disagreement is the date of the vote, with some Republicans reportedly not keen on holding the gambling referendum on the same day as the November general election.
Connecticut to revise regulations
Giveth and taketh away: Connecticut may broaden the range of legal betting markets in the state while introducing stricter restrictions, according to a bill that proposes a major overhaul of regulation
File No. 271, a substitute House bill, would ban the use of celebrities and children in gambling ads, but allow wagering on collegiate sports. Lawmakers legalized online and retail sports betting, daily fantasy sports and retail sports betting in 2021.
The proposals lay out new standards for advertising, including a ban on anything that may appeal to youngsters or appear in places where the majority of the audience is likely to be under 21.
The bill would allow betting on college sports but, in line with the wider national crackdown, outlaws prop bets on players.
File No. 271 is a substitute for House Bill 5284. It has moved through committee and is set to be discussed by the House.
Maine bill resurrected, killed again
Maine character energy: It was third time unlucky for a bill that promised to grant the Wabanaki tribes of Maine the exclusive rights to online gambling. The twice-defeated legislation was revived in the Senate at the last minute, only to be killed hours later in the House.
Proposals to expand the tribes’ online gambling authority from sports betting to all games of chance, such as online poker, was voted down in both the House and Senate last week.
On Tuesday, assistant Senate majority leader Mattie Daughtry requested the bill be reconsidered in order to change her vote, but the plan failed as the House once again voted the measures down.
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The token word – UK finalizing crypto rules
In the summertime: The UK government is aiming to introduce legislation for the regulation of crypto assets “by June or July”, according to economic secretary Bim Afolami. Speaking at the Innovate Finance Global Summit, Afolami said ministers are finalizing legislation to cover a wide range of crypto-related activities, including stablecoins, crypto staking, exchanges and custody services.
The legislation will wrap various crypto-asset activities into the existing regulatory framework.
In 2023, the UK implemented a notable financial markets bill, which established a framework for stablecoins and crypto.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England (BoE) have consulted on the proposed stablecoin regime. The BoE will supervise stablecoin providers that are large enough to affect the financial system, while the FCA will be responsible for regulating the broader crypto space.
Regtech focus – Yaspa
The great society: It isn’t surprising that the government likes the idea that a solution for safer gambling checks might be available should the right finance be in place and, hence, comes the news that instant bank payment provider startup Yaspa has managed to secure a grant from Innovate UK to do just that.
The team there has been “thinking about the form that the ideal solution for safer gambling checks might take,” says James Neville, CEO.
Yet, as the thinking developed, it became clear to the company that the optimum solution would require a “substantive product build, which would benefit from dedicated development resources.”
The UK government offers, via Innovate UK, a ‘smart grant’ and that provided Yaspa with the extra capital needed to expedite the project and also “great PR.” “It was a real achievement to be awarded the Innovate UK grant and we’re determined to make it a success,” says Neville.
Who are you? Neville says Yaspa has “been around for a while”, having been founded in 2017 under the name Citizen, with a focus initially on identity rather than payment solutions “We were one of the first companies to be licensed to provide these payment and identity services through open banking,” he notes.
As the company evolved it has now established itself as a provider of open banking solutions, particularly in regulated industries such as online gaming.
Open and shut case: As Neville points out, the recent unveiling of the UK Gambling Commission’s three-year strategy laid the emphasis on investing in tech and data management to improve insights and oversight.
Neville says Yaspa is “sure it also reflects a broader determination to understand the risks and benefits of new paytech and regtech solutions that operators may be adopting.”
Open banking was also highlighted in a UK government White Paper in April 2023 as a new technology that could be used by gambling operators to help conduct frictionless financial risk checks on gamblers.
Broader implications: Neville says he is in no doubt that other jurisdictions “will be closely monitoring the UK’s adoption and roll-out of affordability and risk-management solutions.”
Open banking – in the form of standardized, open APIs into banking systems – itself is widely available around the world in various forms, albeit still in various stages of maturity.
Calendar
May 6: Gaming in Spain
May 7: SBC Summit North America Player Protection Symposium
May 28-30: IAGA, Washington DC
June 6: Gaming in Holland
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