AGCO Settles With PointsBet Canada Over Ontario Suspension
The Ontario regulator has agreed a two-day shutdown of PointsBet's Ontario site, down from a proposed five-day ban, over unreported suspicious bets tied to Jontay Porter.
PointsBet Canada has agreed to take its Ontario website offline for two days to resolve a dispute with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario over wagers linked to former NBA player Jontay Porter, Legal Sports Report reports.
The regulator had originally pushed for a five-day suspension in February. Under Tuesday's settlement, that period was cut to two days, which will still stand as the first suspension handed to a sports betting or online casino operator since Ontario opened its regulated market.
PointsBet has also agreed to commission an independent audit, carried out by an auditor and using a methodology the AGCO signs off on, and to act on whatever the audit finds. Any corrective steps will then be independently checked.
The case dates to early 2024, when the AGCO asked Ontario-licensed operators to say whether they had taken bets on Porter and whether they had spotted any suspicious wagering. PointsBet replied late and said at the time that it had not offered markets on Porter at all.
That changed after the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment in 2025 tying Porter's case to a wider insider betting scheme, prompting the AGCO to go back to operators for a second check. Eighteen months after its original denial, PointsBet told the regulator it had in fact taken bets on Porter.
The AGCO's review of PointsBet's wagering data turned up signs of the suspicious activity at the heart of the scheme, and the regulator concluded the bets should have been flagged and reported when they were placed.
The AGCO has described operators as a first line of defence for protecting the integrity of sport. Its chief executive and registrar, Karin Schnarr, said in February that the commission expects every operator to maintain strong detection systems and thorough staff training so suspicious activity is caught and reported, adding that the AGCO will step in when operators fall short of that standard.
The NBA banned Porter for life in 2024, and he is awaiting sentencing over manipulating his own performance in games.
PointsBet sold its U.S. business to Fanatics in 2024 but kept its operations running in Canada and Australia.
Separately, the NBA has moved to tighten what sportsbook partners can offer on player props as the 2026-27 season gets under way, a response to both the Porter case and the federal prosecution of Terry Rozier, who has pleaded not guilty.
A league memo issued on October 16 directs sportsbooks to drop parlays built from multiple under bets on the same player, wagers on opening tip outcomes and specific individual plays, inflated alternate-under lines, and unders on players not expected to log at least 12 minutes.
The NBA says its sportsbook partnerships cover more than 99% of the U.S. betting market, though that reach does not extend to prediction markets offering sports contracts regulated as commodities at the federal level.