Performing quite the tap dance, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said that the league was “dragged into legalized sports betting,” while at the same time being better off today now that wagering is out in the open. Speaking at the 2024 Associated Press Sports Editors Commissioners Meetings, Manfred was asked if the league’s position on gambling has changed at all, particularly in light of the scandal in which Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter was found to have stolen millions from the all-world slugger (and pitcher when his arm is healthy) to use for sports betting.
Referring to the 2018 Supreme Court decision that struck down PASPA and allowed states to pass their own laws regarding sports betting, Manfred said (with a laugh, according to CBS Sports), “We were kind of dragged into legalized sports betting as a litigant in a case that ended up in the Supreme Court. Having said that, I recognize — probably better today than when we were involved in that litigation — that one of the advantages of legalization is it’s a heck of a lot easier to monitor what’s going on than it is with an illegal operation.”
MLB, along with the other US professional sports leagues and the NCAA, long fought against sports betting legalization, arguing that it would threaten the integrity of the games. What they would not admit, however, is that there was sports betting already going on, just in a way that was more difficult to monitor, and that legal betting can actually help draw eyeballs. Manfred acknowledged those benefits on Monday, but considering that the league and teams have inked deals with sportsbooks and sports betting is constantly promoted on broadcasts and at baseball venues, saying the league was “dragged into” it is perhaps a little disingenuous, even though, in the end, sports betting legalization was going to happen with or without MLB.
Manfred said the big thing he doesn’t like are player prop bets. Those are much easier for players to manipulate than are bets on overall team outcomes and performances.
“We’ve been on prop bets from the very beginning. When we lobby in states, there’s always certain types of bets that we have lobbied against — I mean, the first pitch of the game, we really don’t want that available as a prop bet,” Manfred said.
Though Manfred’s “dragged into” comment was a little odd, his concerns are not totally without merit. The NBA recently banned the Toronto Raptors’ Jontay Porter for intentionally removing himself from a game to make sure the “under” prop bets on him won. He also told a known NBA bettor what was going to happen, resulting in the person betting $80,000 on Porter’s unders to win $1.1 million.
In addition, Porter bet on NBA games, including three instances in which he bet against his own team as part of larger parlays.
Those bets were all legally placed online, so perhaps they wouldn’t have been made at all if sports betting apps weren’t legal. The fact that they were placed on legal, regulated platforms, though, also meant that they were detected.
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