MW Betting probe involving Terry Rozier could put NBA starter's $50 million in salary at risk

By Weston Blasi

Dozens of pro athletes have already been punished in other gambling cases, showing the potential perils of violating sports-betting rules

Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier is being investigated by federal officials after suspicious betting activity was detected during an NBA game he played in for the Charlotte Hornets in 2023, according to a Thursday report from the Wall Street Journal.

According to the report, authorities believe that Rozier may have manipulated his performance in the game after unusual betting activity was detected. Rozier has not been accused or charged with a crime, the WSJ report stated.

In the game in question, Rozier played the first nine minutes of a 48-minute game against the New Orleans Pelicans, but then left due to a foot injury. He did not appear in another game that season.

The investigation into that 2023 game is part of a wider inquiry by federal authorities linked to former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter, who was banned for life from the NBA for his role in a betting scheme. Porter didn't place any bets on the Raptors to win or lose, but he did give confidential information to a bettor about his injury status before a game.

While Rozier has not been accused or charged in the matter, the fallout from Porter's situation offers a possible blueprint for what happens when an NBA player is associated with alleged illegal sports-gambling activity.

The consequences for Porter were severe: He forfeited the remainder of his NBA contract when he was banned from the league, worth about $410,000.

The stakes for a player of Rozier's caliber look even higher, were he to be found culpable of similar wrongdoing. Rozier's salary for the current 2024-2025 season is $24.9 million, and he is due another $26.6 million next season, according to Spotrac. He has earned roughly $133 million since entering the NBA in 2015.

The NBA has the authority to suspend a player or terminate his contract almost unilaterally for violation of league rules - which would mean that any remaining money on a player's contract would be forfeited.

Of course, there could also be legal ramifications to such schemes. Porter has pleaded guilty to charges in a criminal case, and could face anyhwere from no jail time to 20 years in prison, per the Associated Press. Six people in total associated with the scheme have been arrested.

Since the Supreme Court lifted the U.S. ban on sports betting in 2018, dozens of professional athletes across all major sports have been disciplined to varying degrees for associations with gambling.

In the NFL, Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Calvin Ridley was suspended for one year in 2022 for betting on NFL games while he was injured and playing for the Atlanta Falcons. And in 2023, Detroit Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams was suspended for six games for using betting apps on his phone while at his team's facility. Ridley wagered just $1,500 on NFL games, but he had to forfeit an estimated $11 million as a consequence of violating league policy on sports betting.

The NHL's Shane Pinto was suspended for 44 games in 2023 for violating the league's wagering rules. And two PGA Tour golfers were also suspended in 2023 for betting on tour events: Vince India, who received a six-month suspension, and Jake Staiano, who was suspended for three months.

In European soccer - where legal sports betting has surrounded the sport for decades - English forward Ivan Toney was suspended for eight months in 2023 after being charged with 232 counts of breaching England's betting rules, while Italian midfielder Sandro Tonali was also banned that year for 10 months for violating Italy's athlete gambling rules.

'Everybody, even if they are rich, wants to get richer.'

One expert believes that links between pro athletes and suspicious betting activity were a foregone conclusion once sports betting was legalized again in the U.S.

"It was really likely it was going to happen, and it's really likely it's going to happen a lot more. Everybody, even if they are rich, wants to get richer," said Andrew Zimbalist, professor emeritus of economics at Smith College and a leading expert on the economics of sports.

Each sports league has a distinctive set of rules on sports gambling, but one rule is the same in every major league: no betting on your own sport.

Athletes can bet on other sports, with some restrictions. For example, NBA players can't bet on any basketball properties - including the WNBA, G-League, Summer League or the NBA draft - but they can bet on other sports like the NFL and MLB. And NBA players can have sponsorship deals with a sportsbook; LeBron James, for example, has an endorsement deal with DraftKings in which he often picks games.

Several pro athletes and many sports leagues have sponsorships and partnerships with sportsbooks like DraftKings $(DKNG)$ and FanDuel $(FLUT)$, which closely monitor all bets on games, futures and player props.

And sportsbooks, which have massive datasets and tracking ability for all types of wagers, can easily detect suspicious betting activity, such as an unusual amount of wagers and money being placed on a player prop bet. Oftentimes, it's sportsbooks who alert the leagues about such suspicious betting activity.

That is how DraftKings and another unnamed sportsbook were able to easily identify unusual activity around Jontay Porter player props last year.

"One of the many benefits of legal and regulated sports betting is that sports-betting operators identify and report suspicious activity, and the integrity of sport is therefore protected in a manner that does not exist in the illegal market," DraftKings told MarketWatch about the Porter incident last year.

See: Here's how much money NFL stars Patrick Mahomes, Saquon Barkley and Jalen Hurts can make in Super Bowl bonuses

For Rozier, the NBA admitted that it was alerted to the situation at an unspecified date, but did not find any evidence of wrongdoing.

"In March 2023, the NBA was alerted to unusual betting activity related to Terry Rozier's performance in a game between Charlotte and New Orleans," NBA spokesman Mike Bass said in a statement. "The league conducted an investigation and did not find a violation of NBA rules. We are now aware of an investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York related to this matter and have been cooperating with that investigation."

Rozier, through his representation, denied any wrongdoing in a statement provided to ESPN. Rozier's legal rep declined further comment.

Rozier was also asked about the report at Friday's practice. "On advice from counsel, I can't answer any questions about that matter," Rozier told the press. "So, I won't."

Regardless of how the Rozier situation plays out, Zimbalist said that any links between players and betting could damage the NBA's reputation.

"Jumping into bed with the sportsbooks is going to end up hurting the leagues," he said. "They were looking for quick bucks, and I think they are going to find there's a lot more costs here that eventually [are] going to make this a negative experience."

Read on: This 23-year-old tennis player won almost $264,000 at the Australian Open after not originally qualifying. Here's how.

-Weston Blasi

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February 01, 2025 08:00 ET (13:00 GMT)

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