Betting News – Page 5

October 31, 2024

Bettor who stood to win $1 million in Jontay Porter betting scam pleads guilty

On Wednesday (30 October) Mahmud Mollah became the third person in the Jontay Porter sports betting scandal to plead guilty to wire fraud conspiracy.

Mollah is the gambler who placed bets that would have won $1 million (£776,609/€920,850) on the performance of then two-way NBA player Jontay Porter. Porter, who was playing for the Toronto Raptors on a 10-day contract, removed himself early from games on 26 January and 20 March so he and the gamblers could win “under” bets.

Earlier this month, NBA betting partners, including BetMGM, DraftKings and FanDuel, announced they would stop taking bets on the league’s lowest-paid players, according to The Athletic. No “under” bets will be available on two-way players or players on 10-day contracts. Porter was set to earn $56,000 from his short-term contract with the Raptors and the NBA believes these players are most at risk for being corrupted by bettors.

Mollah pleaded in the the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Port..

October 31, 2024

US September round-up: Sports betting in Colorado, New Hampshire and Rhode Island

Analysing some of the latest monthly sports betting reports in the US, iGB takes a look at how Colorado, New Hampshire and Rhode Island performed in September.

Colorado scores year-on-year growth in September

Starting in Colorado, the Colorado Department of Revenue this week reported total handle across online and retail in September hit $562.9 million (£433.0 million/€518.5 million). This beats last year by 9.8% and also surpasses August’s total by 51.2%, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue.

Of all wagers placed during September, $558.1 million was online and $4.8 million at retail sportsbooks.

Betting volume was helped by the start of the NFL season. Some $173.1 million was bet on American professional football in September, far more than any other sport. Baseball betting topped $69.0 million and college football $42.3 million.

Gross gaming revenue for September was $55.1 million, up 21.6% from last year and 66.0% more than August. Online contributed $54.6 million to..

October 31, 2024

This weekend’s Breeder’s Cup truly a global event; Japan enters a record 19 horses

In the mid-1980s, Kentucky horseman John Gaines established the Breeder’s Cup as an international thoroughbred race. More than 40 years later, the event is living up to the vision.

Horses from nine countries and five continents will compete in the Breeder’s Cup, 1-2 November, at Del Mar in California. Horses and trainers from Argentina, Canada, Chile, France, Ireland, Japan, the UK and US all return. South Africa will compete for the first time.

But Japan dominates the field, with a total of 19 entrants. Forever Young from Hokkaido’s Northern Farm is among the contenders to win Saturday’s $7 million (£5.4 million/€6.4 million) Longines Classic, along with Irish-trained City of Troy and US favourites Fierceness and Next.

Japan contingent “exceeded expectations”

In 2021, Japan sent eight horses to Del Mar and came away with two trophies: Loves Only You in the Filly & Mare Turf and Marche Lorraine in the Distaff. That momentum is now a tsunami.

The volume and diversity of Japanese en..

October 31, 2024

Former Brazil finance ministry advisor warns against banning online betting

José Francisco Manssur, former special secretary of the Brazil ministry of finance, has cautioned that a ban on online betting would be a backwards step for the country.

On 21 October, Senator Sérgio Petecão proposed Bill 4,031/2024 to ban online betting in Brazil over concerns it is driving fiscal debt and gambling addiction.

The bill is the latest in a string of initiatives by politicians to restrict online betting in Brazil, which is set to launch its legal market on 1 January 2025.

Manssur played a key role in Brazil passing its online betting legislation over the line, before he left his position as an advisor in February of this year, subsequently becoming a partner at law firm CSMV Advogados.

With 269 companies having so far applied for a betting licence ahead of the January launch, Manssur says there is clear evidence the industry supports the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets’ (SPA) regulations and deems them sufficient in protecting players.

In an op-ed for Poder 360 dat..

October 30, 2024

Sweepstakes aren’t “clear cut” and that’s a problem, AGA executive says

Chris Cylke just wants clarity. As the American Gaming Association (AGA) joined Indian Country in a discussion of how to handle an unregulated, untaxed form of gambling, the key is understanding where it sits in a legal sense, he said.

Cylke, the AGA’s SVP for government relations, joined Indian Gaming Association (IGA) conference chair Victor Rocha and IGA executive director Jason Giles on Wednesday (30 October) in another unique moment in the short history of legal sports betting in the US. Rocha is hosting a five-part educational series on what sweepstakes are and how the regulated industry can fight their proliferation.

“If sweepstakes gaming were as clear cut as those involved with it are saying, we probably would be doing it,” Cylke said AGA members have told him. “But it’s not worth putting (their) gaming licences at risk.”

Yes, sweepstakes have a politics problem

Cylke called the status of sweepstakes “murky.” And Giles said it falls into the category of other currently o..

October 30, 2024

Arizona: Sports betting revenue and handle rise in August

Sports betting revenue and handle in Arizona increased year-on-year during August, while the state also saw player spending reach its highest monthly total since May.

Total handle for August hit $496.6 million (£382.8 million/€458.4 million). This is 38.4% ahead of last year and also 21.1% above the amount bet in Arizona in July this year.

Some $473.8 million was spent betting on online, while a further $22.8 million was bet at retail sportsbooks across the state.

Data from the Arizona Department of Gaming (ADoG) also shows adjusted gross revenue for August topped $37.3 million. This beats last year by 17.7% but falls 12.2% short of July.

After deducting $14.9m worth of free bets and promotional credits, adjusted gross revenue (AGR) hit $22.4 million. This surpasses last year’s total by 4.7% but is 22.8% behind July this year.

Online betting accounted for $22.2 million of all AGR after deducting free bets. The remaining $210,108 came from wagering at retail sportsbooks in Arizona…

October 30, 2024

Brazil ministry of finance agrees partnerships with match-fixing monitoring bodies

On Tuesday (29 October), Brazil's ministry of finance announced it has agreed to partner with four industry monitoring and integrity organisations to aid the fight against match-fixing.

The Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA), which sits within the ministry of finance, penned Technical Cooperation Agreements (ACTs) with Genius Sports, Sportradar, the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) and the Sports Integrity Global Alliance (Siga and Siga Latin America) to counter fears over match-fixing in Brazil.

The partnerships will last for five years, with the collaborations aiming to strengthen the safety network surrounding the manipulation of sports in Brazil. They will consider the bodies’ learnings and experience in more mature markets like England and Australia.

The agreements will also serve to help the SPA gain knowledge of the betting market in Brazil, educating SPA teams on how to monitor the legal sports betting sector, which is set to go live alongside igamin..

October 29, 2024

Jontay Porter effect could be just the beginning of banning bets

Major sportsbooks have done away with certain NBA player props and the potential ramifications go far beyond that.

Jontay Porter is unlikely to ever take the court for an NBA team again.

Still, this player with a career average of 11.2 minutes per game is a central figure in one of the league’s biggest storylines of the new season.

A number of national sportsbooks such as BetMGM, Caesars, DraftKings, ESPN Bet and FanDuel won’t be posting NBA player prop unders for those on 10-day or two-way contracts. The rationale? These players have less financial security than those under contract for the season. Because of that they could be enticed to purposely tank their performances.

Call this the Jontay Porter effect.

Porter did exactly this – exiting games early due to supposed injury or illness, ensuring under bets on his props would win – a season ago as a member of the Toronto Raptors. This scheme led him to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He was also banned for life f..

October 29, 2024

Plenty of support for Missouri legal wagering initiative, but fate unclear

While Caesars has backed down on its “no” on Amendment 2 contributions in Missouri, on 24 October FanDuel added another $4.6 million in support of the legal sports betting initiative.

FanDuel’s latest deposit brings the total contributions to the “Winning for Missouri Education” campaign to $40.7 million (£31.2 million/€37.6 million), according to Missouri Ethics Commission records. That total alone would make the campaign the priciest in Missouri history. Before deciding to “focus our efforts on grassroots outreach and community conversations” and pulling $1 million worth of scheduled television advertising earlier this month, Caesars had funded the “no” campaign with more than $14 million.

The two biggest newspapers in Missouri have endorsed Amendment 2. But the Kansas City Star editorial board did so “with some hesitation” on 10 October. In an editorial, the newspaper outlined concerns about addiction.

Whether or not the initiative will pass is unclear. The most recent polling..