A sports betting company could be suspended in Ontario over the Jontay Porter scandal
PointsBet is staring down a costly five-day ban in the province
Two years after a major betting scandal rocked the NBA, sports betting company PointsBet is getting a serious slap on the wrist from Ontario gambling regulators.
In early 2024, then Raptors player Jontay Porter secretly—and illegally—flubbed his own playing in a series of NBA games. Unbeknownst to the league, a ring of gamblers connected to Porter had been placing prop bets on him in each of those games, betting that he would perform worse than usual—and they had been tipped off by Porter beforehand. When he exited games early, claiming injury, all those bets hit, earning Porter and his buddies big money.
Related: Inside fallen Toronto Raptor Jontay Porter’s sports betting scandal
Porter’s associates placed their bets through sports betting companies that operate in both Ontario and the US, which are subject to regulation and have to report suspicious activity. This is what got them caught: their huge winning bets on such a minor player quickly set off alarm bells, and investigators quickly closed in on the cheaters. That summer, Porter and several of his conspirators pleaded guilty to US racketeering charges.
When news of the scandal came to light, the province’s gambling regulator, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, directed all sports books operating in the province to confirm whether they had offered bets on Porter and whether they’d seen anything suspicious. Most did so promptly, but for whatever reason, Australia-based betting operator PointsBet took its time. After what the AGCO is calling a “significant delay,” PointsBet said it hadn’t offered any bets on Porter.
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In October of 2025, US prosecutors revealed that Porter’s case was just one part of a much broader insider betting scheme. Again, the AGCO asked Ontario’s sports books to confirm whether anything odd had happened around Porter in their markets. This time, PointsBet walked back its earlier answer, saying it had, in fact, allowed users to bet on Porter in those games. Worse, the AGCO found “indications of suspicious betting” in those same wagers, which PointsBet should have reported but didn’t.
In response, the AGCO is now threatening to suspend PointsBet’s operations in the province for five days—a costly penalty for a company that lives off people betting around the clock. It’s also a bad look for the province: when the Ford government allowed online sports betting in Ontario in 2022, it promised that legalization would make sports safer. That’s difficult to do when betting companies can simply ignore the regulator.
In a statement, PointsBet defended its compliance record and expressed disappointment in the regulator’s decision. The company has 15 days to ask the AGCO for a review of its case, and the regulator’s level of responsiveness is anyone’s guess. For now, it’s the bookies themselves who have to wonder about their odds.
Anthony Milton is a freelance journalist based in Toronto specializing in long-form magazine writing. He previously worked as an assistant editor at Toronto Life, where he launched the Front Row newsletter. He regularly contributes all sorts of stories to the magazine, including deep dives on sports, business and housing as well as short-form commentary on our ever-changing city, from its obsession with cherry blossoms to its maddening NIMBYism. His work has also appeared in Maclean’s, Ricochet, TVO, the Trillium and more.
