The 2024 sports betting integrity case involving NBA player Jontay Porter has come back to haunt PointsBet, which has been temporarily suspended by the Ontario gambling regulator.
The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) announced yesterday that PointsBet’s licence had been suspended for five days, citing the Porter case of the root cause.
Ontario is a core market for PointsBet, an Australia-founded and headquartered business which operates in the province via its PointsBet Canada subsidiary. The resurrection of the Porter incident comes at a critical time for the Australia-based HQ.
The case may also warrant attention from other licence holders in Ontario, one of the most lucrative betting markets in North America and host of a number of European companies including bet365, TonyBet, BetVictor, Betway, Betano and bwin.
PointsBet and Porter
Porter, an American, was a power forward for the Toronto Raptors from 2023-2024, and in 2024 became the first NBA player to be banned for life for involvement in a sports betting scandal.
The NBA began investigating Porter in March 2024 over suspicious activity during Toronto Raptors games on 26 January and 20 March. The investigation concluded that Porter had told a known NBA bettor about his health prior to the 20 March game.
This bettor subsequently bet $80,000 on a same-game parlay (similar to a UK-style bet builder) with a payout of $1.1m. It also determined he had deliberately changed play during the game to assist bets, and had used an associate to place 13 bets on NBA games.
In April 2024, Porter was given a lifelong ban by the NBA for passing on insider information, and later faced criminal charges.
The 2024 incident was the most dramatic case of sports integrity breaches to hit the US and Canadian sports scenes since the 2018 repeal of PASPA in the former and the 2023 launch of the Ontario betting market in the latter.
In October 2025, the case resurfaced when the US Department of Justice indictment against Porter was publicly released and revealed a wider insider betting scheme. The AGCO then asked all required operators to confirm if suspicious betting on Porter occurred.
PointsBet considers appeal
PointsBet confirmed to the AGCO that it had offered betting on Porter during the suspicious fixtures. The regulator subsequently reviewed the operator’s wagering data and concluded, in its words, that the betting “was central to the scheme uncovered in 2024”.
“These wagers should have been detected and reported at the time the betting occurred,” the regulator’s statement read. “Regulated igaming operators act as a critical first line of defense in protecting the integrity of sport and Ontario’s sports betting market.
“They are required to diligently monitor, detect and immediately report unusual and suspicious betting activity on their sites that may be indicative of bet-rigging.
“The timely identification and reporting of such issues warn sports leagues, integrity monitors, regulators and law enforcement of potential integrity concerns. It also alerts gaming operators across the globe, which allows them to take necessary steps to protect their patrons from bets lacking integrity.”
The AGCO has since told Canadian Gaming Business (CGB) that the suspension will not go into effect for at least 15 days. This gives the company a reasonable amount of time to prepare for any impact on trading and its market position.
However, PointsBet also confirmed to the outlet that it believes the sanction is “disproportionate given the circumstances’ and that it is considering an appeal.
The firm also told CGB that the issues were the result of “human error during an organizational transition — not any intent to withhold information.”.
A bigger picture
The forthcoming suspension of PointsBet’s Ontario activity comes amid a significant change for PointsBet – this being the takeover of the Australia-based business by Japanese tech firm MIXI’s Australian arm.
MIXI fought a long-running bidding battle against Australian challenger brand Betr to secure control of PointsBet, eventually coming out on top in September with a 66.4% stake in PointsBet for AU$1.25 per share offer, though Betr does still remain a minor PointsBet shareholder.
Under new ownership, PointsBet would subsequently appoint a new CEO, Sam Swanell, in December 2025. The continuation of PointsBet Canada’s operations will be key to PointsBet’s wider financial performance going forward.
While a five day suspension of trading is not a huge amount of time in the grand scheme of things, if it is timed with some big sporting fixtures it could deal both short-term and long-term blows to PointsBet. Customers wanting to put a bet on an NBA or NHL fixture during that time may turn to competitors, for example.
Meanwhile, in an even bigger context, the AGCO’s ruling indicates an increasingly tougher stance from the regulator. The decision comes just a month after FanDuel was issued a CA$350,000 (€216,000) penalty over sports integrity breaches, something which the US-based firm, owned by Irish-American multinational betting giant Fluter Entertainment, strongly denied.
The 2024 sports betting integrity case involving NBA player Jontay Porter has come back to haunt PointsBet, which has been temporarily suspended by the Ontario gambling regulator. The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) announced yesterday that PointsBet’s licence had been suspended for five days, citing the Porter case of the root cause. Ontario