The Big Rotten Apple of Sport
Athletes like Ryan Bowman (football) or Jontay Porter (NBA) were caught betting on their own games.
Illegal betting has become the biggest bad apple in sports. Ryan Bowman, a 33-year-old English footballer, received a 42-month ban for placing 6,397 sports bets in 2021, when he played for Exeter, and 3,100 bets between August 2021 and July 2023, when he played for Shrewsbury. He was also a top scorer. He also placed hundreds of bets on competitions involving his clubs.
Illegal betting isn't limited to football. In basketball, the latest scandal involved Jontay Porter. The former Toronto Raptors player pleaded guilty to gambling irregularities linked to a betting scheme and was banned for life by the NBA. His performance in two games, played on January 26 and March 20, set off alarm bells. During the first game against the Los Angeles Clippers, the prediction that earned the most money in the NBA was the one referring to his three-pointers. Unlike usual, he didn't shoot any. The situation was repeated against the Sacramento Kings, when he only attempted one shot before requesting a substitution due to an alleged vision problem in one eye.
Some bookmakers registered an extraordinary profit in these two matches to bet that Porter would not reach his usual records, a strategy known asunder. ESPN claims there were "multiple" attempts to bet more than $10,000 and $20,000 on the game against the Clippers, when the restrictions for these individual performance bets are usually between $1,000 and $2,000. The former Raptors player had a salary of just €380,000.
Although the concern is evident and restrictions are growing, the most important leagues in the United States have long emphasized their relationship with the sports betting market, a multi-million dollar business that is difficult to give up. The NBA League Pass, thestreaming The NBA's most recent collective bargaining agreement allows players to invest in betting companies and promote companies in the industry.