PointsBet Slammed with Five-Day Suspension in Ontario After Taking Suspicious NBA Bets

^{PointsBet Canada was issued a five-day suspension for taking suspicious NBA bets in 2024. (Photo: SOPA Images Limited / Alamy Live News)}

PointsBet Canada is in hot water with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) for failing to take action on suspicious NBA wagers. 

The AGCO has issued a Notice of Proposed Order for a five-day suspension against the sportsbook as punishment for taking questionable NBA bets in 2024 and failing to document or report those wagers.

The bets in question were related to the 2024 betting scheme involving former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter, who has been banned from the NBA after manipulating his play to help hit “Under” props for gamblers.

PointsBet First Denies, Then Confirms Suspicious Bets

According to the AGCO, it first contacted all sportsbooks regulated in Ontario to ask whether they had offered prop bets on Porter and whether any had detected suspicious activity on those markets. The AGCO said that PointsBet eventually told the regulator that it had not offered any such bets, though the sportsbook finally replied after a significant delay.

Once the US Department of Justice released its indictment for the Porter betting scheme in October 2025, however, the AGCO asked its operators to answer the same questions again. This time, PointsBet acknowledged that it had offered bets on Porter and had observed suspicious betting behavior. The AGCO is now arguing that PointsBet should have detected and reported the activity at the time.

“Safeguarding the integrity of sports and Ontario’s sports betting market is a top priority for the AGCO,” AGCO chief executive Dr. Karin Schnarr said in a statement. “We require all operators to have robust systems and comprehensive staff training in place to reliably detect and report suspicious activity."

Dr. Schnarr added that the AGCO's framework for regulating sports betting is clear, and that "operators must be equipped to detect and effectively respond to integrity risks." The organization strongly enforces these standards when they are not met.

PointsBet Has History of AGCO Fines

The AGCO said that the move to suspend a license was the first of its kind in the regulatedOntario iGaming industry. However, it’s not the first time the regulator has issued a penalty against PointsBet.

In May 2022, the AGCO fined PointsBet for advertising and inducement-related operations. Later, in November 2023, another fine was issued for violations of the provincial responsible gambling standards.

The NBA issued a lifetime ban to Porter in April 2024 after finding that he had deliberately limited his participation in games to influence prop bets. NBA officials also found that Porter had made at least 13 bets on NBA games while either on the roster of the Raptors or Raptors 905, the franchise’s G League affiliate.

At the time, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver noted that working with regulated sportsbooks and integrity monitors helped direct the suspicious betting, highlighting the importance of operators in rooting out such schemes. 

In October 2025, ESPN reported that at least 11 men's college basketball games were targeted an alleged gambling syndicate, with integrity monitors again proving critical in detecting suspicious betting patterns.