As the debate intensified during the lead up to the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn PASPA, the “integrity of the game” argument was a key pillar of the leagues’ opposition to the legalization of sports betting. Making gambling legal and more accessible would create an existential threat to their sports, they argued, increasing the likelihood of game-fixing, fan mistrust and shadowy hangers-on.
The counterargument was that gambling on sports was already happening, and since legalization would make gambling more transparent, nefarious activities could be more readily detected, thanks to safeguards that come with a regulated environment. After all, no one wants games to be on-the-level more than the sports betting operators.
During Major League Baseball’s 2025 All-Star festivities in Atlanta this week, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred acknowledged the legitimacy of this point of view, while continuing to express integrity concerns, especially when it comes to a certain type of wagering that’s increasing in popularity.
“I know there was a lot of sports betting, tons of it that went on illegally and we had no idea, no idea what threats there were to the integrity of the play because it was all not transparent,” Manfred told the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, per the Associated Press. “I firmly believe that the transparency and monitoring that we have in place now, as a result of the legalization and the partnerships that we’ve made, puts us in a better position to protect baseball than we were in before.”
But, the Commissioner cautioned, he’s uneasy about micro-betting – wagering on small outcomes within the game, such as whether a pitch will be a ball or strike.
Manfred’s comments came as Cleveland Guardians pitcher Luis Ortiz served out a paid leave during an investigation into suspicious betting activities related to two of his pitches. Ortiz has not been accused of misconduct and is eligible to return to action tomorrow when play resumes after the All-Star break.
“There are certain types of bets that strike me as unnecessary and particularly vulnerable, things where it’s one single act [that] doesn’t affect the outcome necessarily,” Manfred said.
The Luiz Ortiz situation
Betting on two specific pitches are in question: Ortiz’s first pitch at the bottom of the second inning of a June 15 game against the Seattle Mariners, and the first pitch at the top of the third inning on June 27 against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Wagers on these pitches being either a ball or hit-by-pitch were placed in New Jersey, New York and Ohio, and IC360, a company that monitors betting activity for sportsbooks, flagged the bets as suspicious, ESPN reported.
Both sliders landed far outside the strike zone.
While the bets on Ortiz’s pitches were enough to raise red flags, an authority on baseball micro-betting told ESPN in a separate piece that it’s unlikely large wagers were placed, as most sportsbook impose low maximums on these markets.
DraftKings and Simplebet
Manfred’s allusion to micro-betting came in context of DraftKings’ recent acquisition of Simplebet, a company that provides live betting micro-markets for a variety of sports, including baseball.
In a deal announced last August, DraftKings, an official partner of MLB, paid a reported $195 million for Simplebet.
Manfred’s comments and the controversy stirring around Ortiz raise questions about whether MLB will try to kibosh micro-betting on its games.
Micro-betting, for now, comprises a relatively small portion of a sportsbook’s overall handle, but DraftKings’ substantial investment in the space demonstrates its importance to the operator.
Also read: DraftKings Eyes Prediction Markets Through Railbird Acquisition
Baseball’s betting controversies
The history of baseball, of course, is blighted by the betting scandals of the 1919 Black Sox fixing the World Series and Pete Rose gambling on games, including those involving his own team, when he was manager of the Reds.
Here are betting-related controversies that have arisen since PASPA was struck down in 2018.
- Last year, Padres player Tucupita Marcano was banned by MLB for life after he was found to have placed 387 bets on baseball for more than $150,000 in 2022 and 2023. While some of those bets involved Pirates games when he was on the team, he did not play in the games he bet on, and there is no evidence of game-fixing.
- Also in 2024, four players received one-year suspensions for gambling violations: Michael Kelly, Jay Groome, José Rodríguez and Andrew Saalfrank.
- In the same year, Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, claimed the Dodgers superstar paid off his gambling debts. Mizuhara ended up pleading guilty to bank fraud and tax crimes. He was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison and ordered to pay nearly $17 million in restitution to Ohtani and $1.15 million to the IRS.
