Feds Investigating Irregular Betting On Terry Rozier Props

Last year, the NBA was rocked by its first major betting scandal in some time when Jontay Porter was found to have manipulated his performances as part of a gambling ring that resulted in federal charges for Porter and others. Porter was banned for life from the NBA and has plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his role, as he conspired with bettors to purposefully remove himself from games with injury to ensure the under on various player props would hit as part of a scheme to erase gambling debts he had that were unrelated to the NBA.

Recently, we learned Porter was not just in connection with the bettors prior to games, but also sent texts to the bettors during a Raptors game he was playing in. While this appeared to be an isolated incident, the Wall Street Journal brings word of another federal investigation into some irregular bets that were flagged from the same group on Terry Rozier prop unders when he was on the Hornets from a March 2023 game against the Pelicans.

In that game, Rozier started and played the first 9.5 minutes before checking out in a timeout and never returning with a foot injury. According to the Wall Street Journal, federal investigators are looking into whether he purposefully manipulated his performance to allow the under to hit on his props in that game as well.

The game in question took place on March 23, 2023, when Rozier was a member of the Charlotte Hornets. The betting on Rozier was strange enough that day to raise alarms at U.S. Integrity, a firm that works with sports entities, gambling operators and government agencies to monitor betting markets for suspicious activity.

The NBA released a statement to the Wall Street Journal about the investigation, noting they were made aware of the bets being flagged and investigated the matter and found no violations of NBA rules.

“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. “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 left that game with “right foot discomfort,” per the official Hornets PR release from that night, and was doubtful to return. Going back and watching the game on League Pass, it’s understandable why federal investigators may have some questions regarding that injury designation. There’s not a clear moment where an injury occurs and he appears to be moving normally in the possessions leading into the timeout when he checks out.

On the three possessions prior, Rozier leaps to steal the ball, pushes it up the floor, and passes it to Kelly Oubre, who missed a three. He then runs back on defense, takes the ball out after a made three, brings the ball up the floor, dribbles into traffic, passes it, gets it back, and passes to Dennis Smith Jr., who misses a baseline shot. Rozier then runs back on defense, Brandon Ingram hits a three, and he walks towards the Hornets bench.

Given the vague “discomfort” designation on his injury, the lack of an obvious moment where he got hurt, and the suspicious activity on his prop unders, it’s not a surprise investigators want to look a bit deeper into the situation. What makes the Rozier situation so strange is, unlike Porter, Rozier has made $133 million in his career and would stand to gain far less from involving himself in helping gamblers win tens of thousands of dollars on prop bets than a guy with a short career playing for minimums and two-ways.

As the WSJ notes (and Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press confirmed), Rozier has not been charged with any crime or accused of any wrongdoing, but is, for now, simply under investigation. Porter’s case was open and shut thanks to an easy trail of communication via text with gamblers, and if that doesn’t exist with Rozier, then this is much more circumstantial.

Rozier did not play for the Hornets for the remainder of the season, as Charlotte was looking to chase lottery odds at that point, finishing the season 27-55. Given that, another possibility is that the gamblers could have gotten insight into organizational plans to shut down top veterans, rather than any contact with Rozier himself. If they became aware of a plan from the team to have Rozier play and exit with an injury designation that allowed them to shut him down for the rest of the season, that could also lead to irregular betting patterns that Rozier had nothing to do with.

We will have to wait for the full findings of this probe, which apparently extends to college basketball as well. The two Porter games and this one Rozier game are the only three NBA games flagged by U.S. Integrity for irregular betting patterns over the past two seasons, per the WSJ.