Big-time baseball agent Scott Boras is calling for the elimination of player prop bets in the wake of a scandal involving pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz.
The Cleveland Guardians players were charged by federal prosecutors with fraud, conspiracy and bribery for intentionally throwing balls on certain pitches that led to gamblers claiming six figures in winnings.
Key Takeaways
- Boras did not represent Ortiz or Clase, but works with a plethora of stars.
- MLB announced this week it would implement $200 wagering limits for individual-pitch markets.
- Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine suggested that sportsbooks should ban player-specific micro-bets.
Ortiz, 26, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday. He was conditionally released on a $500,000 bond.
Clase, 27, will appear for his arraignment in the same Brooklyn federal court on Thursday.
The pair were placed on non-disciplinary leave earlier this year after news broke they were being investigated for their involvement in an illegal betting scheme.
As a response, MLB earlier this week announced that more than 20 online sportsbooks agreed to implement $200 wagering limits in markets related to individual pitch outcomes, and also made changes to prevent those markets from being included in parlays. Sportsbooks that agreed to the changes included market leaders FanDuel and DraftKings, as well as bet365, Fanatics, BetMGM, Caesars, and others.
The goal was to dissuade players from falling victim to nefarious influences – but despite the new protocol, Boras believes that danger still exists with prop bets.
“You have to remove those prop bets to make sure that the integrity of the players is not questioned, because there's going to be all forms of performance questions given now to pitchers and such when they throw certain pitches to the back of the screen, or situationally, and really, we don't want any part of it,” Boras said during the general managers meetings. “We want the players' integrity never to be questioned.”
Boras is revered as baseball’s most powerful agent. He and his organization represent Juan Soto, Gerrit Cole, Blake Snell, Bryce Harper, and Tarik Skubal, among many others. He did not represent Clase or Ortiz.
Sports betting scandals sweep the nation
While neither of the Guardians’ players have been convicted, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine already joined the call to limit the availability of certain betting markets. Rather than get rid of player props entirely, he proposed removing player-specific micro-betting odds.
“I realize it's a really complicated issue,” said Chris Antonetti, the president of baseball operations for the Guardians. “I'm grateful for the efforts by Major League Baseball and Gov. DeWine to try to find some way to address what seemed to be a problem, so hopefully that's a step in the right direction.”
MLB is not the only league that is dealing with the unwanted effects of sports betting scandals.
The NBA’s Terry Rozier, a guard for the Miami Heat, and Chauncey Billups, the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, were both arrested for illegal gambling in October. Billups was said to have participated in illegal poker tournaments and shared privileged information about the health statuses of his players, while Rozier is alleged to have prematurely removed himself from a game to help prop bettors cash the under on his lines.
Ohio also had a past run-in with fraudulent baseball betting.
Former Alabama baseball coach Brad Bohannon messaged a confidant that he was going to rule out his star pitcher with an injury before that information was made public. That prompted the man to rush to Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati to place a $100,000 wager on Alabama’s opponent, LSU.
The casino only allowed the man to wager $15,000 despite his pleas and sharing that LSU “was for sure going to win… if you only knew what I knew.” Bohannon was given a 15-year show-cause penalty, handed a $5,000 penalty and three years of probation, and was fired as a result of the events.
The affiliate pleaded guilty to one charge of obstruction. He faced up to 10 years in prison but only received eight months behind bars and three years of supervised release.
Sports betting is big business, and big risk
Ohio legalized sports betting in December 2021 and launched its online and retail markets on Jan. 1, 2023. The Ohio Casino Control Commission reported that Ohio sportsbooks generated $904 million in revenue from nearly $8.9 billion in wagers during 2024.
Meanwhile, the MLB already has deals in place with numerous sports betting companies.
MLB’s last betting scandal came at the start of the 2024 season, when it was discovered that megastar Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, had fraudulently used his money to place illegal wagers. Mizuhara was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison and ordered to return the $17 million he had stolen.
