Major League Baseball was rocked by a gambling scandal with former Cleveland Guardians teammates Emmanuel Clase and Luis L. Ortiz recently being indicted by prosecutors for their roles in an alleged scheme to rig bets on individual pitches thrown during games.
The United States Department of Justice charged each player with wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery and money laundering conspiracy.
In response to the purported misconduct, all MLB authorized gaming operators will cap wagers at $200 on pitch-level markets and exclude those bets from parlays. The new measures are intended to mitigate integrity risks, and maintain transparency and data access benefits that the regulated sports betting market provides.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is happy with the steps that were taken to prevent this kind of activity going forward and said the league will proceed under the current rules in place, via ESPN’s Jorge Castillo:
“I think that the most important undertaking and really the bedrock of our relationship with the sportsbooks is the ability to monitor betting activity,” Manfred said Wednesday during the owners meetings. “The ability to discern inappropriate patterns is really, really important. We understood the prop bet issue from the very beginning. I’m glad we’ve done something about it. But the rest of the program, right now, I think we’re generally prepared to move forward under the rules that we have now.”
Most prop bets present limited integrity risk because they are centered around multiple events that are influenced by more than one participant.
However, “micro-bet” pitch-level markets (such as ball/strike, and pitch velocity) present heightened integrity risks because they focus on one-off events that can be determined by a single player and can be inconsequential to the outcome of the game.
Manfred believes the new limitations on such bets will deter players from participating in potential future schemes and doesn’t think further actions are necessary.
MLB is still expected to respond to a letter sent by members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation communicating concern about recent gambling scandals affecting multiple sports leagues.
Andy Pages’ at-bat connected to MLB sports gambling scandal
Prosecutors alleged that Clase collaborated with bettors on pitch outcomes, including one during a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 28. A prop bet had been placed on Clase’s first pitch of his appearance being a ball.
Clase got Andy Pages to swing at a first-pitch slider that bounced in the dirt. The right-hander retired Pages en route to getting through a scoreless ninth inning on just 10 pitches.
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