Manfred worried about gambling-related threats toward MLB players

While MLB has strong partnerships with DraftKings and FanDuel, the league’s commissioner continues to express concern about gambling-related issues.

Speaking at the MLB All-Star Game festivities earlier this month, Rob Manfred gathered with the media to speak about the state of the league at the midway point of the season. One topic the MLB commissioner touched on was the growth of sports betting and how it impacts the sport he is tasked with overseeing. 

As part of his comments, Manfred expressed concern for player safety in relation to sports betting. At the same time, Manfred confirmed that the main concern is the integrity of the game and expressed confidence in the league’s integrity system. 

“If a player receives a threat from any source, on any topic, it is a matter of concern to us that we take really seriously,” Manfred told the media. “I’ve had players in the last month mention this issue to me as one of concern and we’re discussing what we should do to be more proactive in this area.”

Manfred had previously stated that MLB was “dragged into” legalized sports betting. He also told a Texas-based radio station that the league opposed widespread legalized sports betting after the repeal of PASPA in 2018.

Manfred monitoring issue

This isn’t the first time Manfred has expressed concern about the growth of sports betting. Speaking at the 2024 AP Sports Editors Commissioners Meeting, Manfred raised issues with prop bets.

“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. 

The concern is certainly be valid. With a prop bet, it only takes one rogue player to be compromised in some way. It’s significantly more unrealistic for an entire team to be involved. To Manfred’s point, a pitcher can easily be propositioned to throw an off-speed pitch way out of the zone on his first pitch and nobody would really bat an eye. A batter can be propositioned to take the first pitch no matter what. While we trust this doesn’t happen, it could potentially be an extremely easy market to manipulate.

Baseball has had its fair share of issues

Manfred’s job would be much easier if baseball hadn’t endured significant gambling scandals over the past year.

Earlier this season, MLB banned infielder Tucupita Marcano for life after an investigation found he bet on games involving his own team as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates last season. Four minor leaguers received a one-year suspension for betting on MLB games. 

MLB also made headlines earlier this year when Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $17 million from MLB’s biggest star in order to pay off gambling debts.

In June, it came out that MLB umpire Pat Hoberg was disciplined for a violation of the league’s gambling rules. There are no publicly available details about the incident, but Hoberg has appealed the decision and the league stated there is no evidence he manipulated games he was working. Despite that, Hoberg, who is considered one of the league’s best umpires after calling a flawless game behind the plate in the 2022 World Series, has not worked a game yet this season. 

Great American Ballpark, the home of the Cincinnati Reds, was also a center of some controversy. That is where a friend of Brad Bohannon, then the manager of University of Alabama’s baseball team, attempted to place a $100,000 bet based on inside information he received from Bohannon regarding the Crimson Tide’s starting pitching. The MLB integrity system was used to flag the bet.

Baseball isn’t the only sport that has dealt with betting scandals. The NFL has handed down numerous suspensions for violations of their gambling policy, most famously a full-year ban to Calvin Ridley for betting parlays. The NHL suspended Ottawa Senators forward Shane Pinto 41 games last season for proxy betting. The NBA recently banned Jontay Porter for manipulating his prop lines. 

Where Manfred and other commissioners agree is that the legalization and monitoring of the industry has been a positive for sports leagues. “I think I try to keep perspective on this. I think the relationships that we built with sports betting enterprises, which has given us the ability to use technology to monitor betting activities, I really, truly believe that we are in a better position to know what’s going on today than we were in the old days where it was all illegal,” Manfred told the media.

MLB has no issues accepting sportsbooks’ money

While Manfred certainly has to look out for his sport and the potential dangers of the legalized betting industry, a quick look at the league and its partners shows that MLB and its teams aren’t totally against the idea of legalized sports betting. 

The league has partnered with both DraftKings and FanDuel to serve as the official sports betting partners of MLB. In total, 15 of the league’s 30 teams have at least one partnership with a sportsbook operator. On top of that, seven of the league’s stadiums have some type of partnership with a sportsbook. 

In addition to that, the league plans to move the Oakland Athletics franchise to Las Vegas in the coming years. That will make MLB the third major professional league to add a team to that market since 2017. The NHL added the Vegas Golden Knights as an expansion team for the 2017-18 season, and the NFL moved the Oakland Raiders to Vegas before the 2020 season.