Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama says he won’t ever promote gambling: ‘Absolutely not’

Victor Wembanyama is willing to sell some things, but sports gambling apparently won’t be one of them.

The Spurs star was asked whether he would ever promote a sports betting or prediction-market company and left absolutely no room for interpretation, as reported by the San Antonio Express-News.

“Absolutely not,” Wembanyama said. “I will never do that. I think it’s very sad seeing athletes and people in general promote betting. I think it messes with people’s lives. So I would never promote that.”

It’s a noteworthy stance at a time when some of the NBA’s biggest names are doing precisely what Wembanyama says he won’t.

LeBron James recently signed an endorsement deal with prediction-market platform Polymarket that’s reportedly worth $15 million annually. James’ agreement includes promotional content and social-media posts, though his work for the company is focused on football rather than basketball. His previous endorsement agreement with DraftKings expired earlier this year.

But Wembanyama, 22, apparently has some lines he isn’t interested in crossing for an endorsement check.

This isn’t the first one, either. His agent, Bouna Ndiaye, previously said Wembanyama has rejected opportunities to promote soda because he doesn’t drink it and doesn’t want to encourage children to do something he considers unhealthy.

There aren’t many endorsement opportunities unavailable to a player with Wembanyama’s profile. He’s apparently decided that doesn’t mean he has to take all of them. On gambling, anyway, he couldn’t have made his answer much clearer.