Manipulation of stats to help friends is the underbelly of sports betting that no one wants to face.
New Nets forward Michael Porter Jr. issued a startling warning on the “One Night with Steiny” podcast for his fellow NBA players who might think about trying to help friends win money on bets.
Porter’s brother, Jontay, was banished from the NBA for manipulating his stats for prop bets.
‘’Obviously, my brother went through his situation,“ Michael said when talking about players affecting their stat lines in reference to the lines set by the betting markets. ”Malik Beasley’s going through a situation right now. Terry Rozier was in some hot water. But the whole sports gambling entity, it’s bad and it’s only gonna get worse.”
Stat manipulation tied to prop betting has become a huge sports betting controversy, especially in light of recent scandals affecting the NBA and MLB.
Michael Porter Jr. on sports betting
“Think about it if you can get all your homies rich by telling yo bet 10K on my under..this one game imma act like I got an injury and they all get a lil bag… some people come from nothing & they think like that.”
— Fullcourtpass (@Fullcourtpass) August 12, 2025
Jontay’s situation stands out since it resulted in his ban after he played minimal minutes multiple times before checking out with some sort of injury or illness to influence his prop bets.
“Think about it, if you can get all your homies rich by telling them, “Yo, bet $10,000 on my Under this one game. I’mma act like I got an injury and I’mma sit out. I”mma come out after three minutes. And they all get a lil bag because you did it one game,” Michael said on the podcast.
“Some people come from nothing, and they think like that.”
There were massive bets on his Unders in that game, which was eventually flagged by the sportsbooks and their high-priced betting integrity firms, whose goal is to find cracks in the system.
Just last month, Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase was put on leave after an investigation dropped that he may have been manipulating his stats, as well as teammate Luis Ortiz.
This isn’t a problem that has been thrown behind a closet, though.
As legalized sports betting continues to grow, regulators are also poking around to see where manipulation is easiest to take hold.
Prop betting has been banned in college sports in 16 states.
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Ohio regulators also put forth a ban on prop betting – specifically micro-betting, which affects individual pitches in baseball games or make/miss basket props in basketball – which could help solve some of the issues.
Although like anything, banning some things could eventually make that action go to the black market, which would make it nearly untraceable.
Why Trust New York Post Betting
Erich Richter is a brazilian jiu-jitsu blue belt but he has a black belt in MMA betting. During the football season he’s showcased massive profits at The Post in the player prop market the last two seasons. While constantly betting long shots, his return on investment is 30.15 percent since 2022.
