Just over half of MLB players believe the league is doing enough to protect the game from players teaming up with gamblers, according to a survey conducted by The Athletic.
Key Takeaways
- Eighteen players said MLB isn't doing enough.
- One player said the league was hypocritical for constantly promoting gambling.
- Others believe the onus should be on the players themselves.
MLB is only one year removed from the scandal that involved Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz. Both were suspended after being accused of manipulating pitches for the benefit of sports bettors in cases that are still being fought in court.
“It takes plain stupidity to do that,” an NL reliever told The Athletic. “You can’t fix stupid.”
MLB’s sports betting rules are straightforward: Wagering on baseball games at any level is not allowed. Team personnel and league employees also cannot share privileged information with sports bettors or fix their performances so that associates can profit at sportsbooks.
Similar rules exist in other professional and amateur sports federations. But despite that, cases of illegal betting have proliferated.
The Athletic’s poll, conducted under the veil of anonymity from February to May 2026, asked players if they believed MLB has done enough to protect games from interference by sports bettors. Fifty-five of the 100 players surveyed answered "Yes," while 27 were unsure or had no opinion and 18 said no.
“It’s kind of like PEDs,” said an AL Central position player. “It’s well-known that you shouldn’t be doing that, so if you do it, I feel like that’s your decision rather than a lack of understanding.”
An NL pitcher suggested that any ambiguity or uncertainty about the league’s rules and enforcement will disappear by the seriousness with which it approached the Guardians pitchers' situation.
“The whole deal in Cleveland seems like a pretty good start,” the player said. “They got rid of one of the better players in baseball, which tells you, ‘We don’t allow this for anybody.’”
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Players express concern
While the majority of the respondents said MLB has done enough, a smaller portion questioned the league’s integrity for partnering with U.S. sports betting companies.
“I think it’s a pretty hypocritical thing to take the stance they do on gambling and put such a negative stigma around players gambling ... while also promoting DraftKings and FanDuel Sportsbook and those things,” said an NL hitter, per The Athletic. “It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.”
“It’s in every stadium,” an AL pitcher added. “There’s f---ing ads everywhere - BetMGM, Bet Hard Rock, all this s---. There’s nothing saying, ‘Don’t do it.’ It would be too easy. We already saw it.”
Another player went so far as to say that MLB is “promoting (sports betting) rather than helping players.”
MLB signed its first gambling partnership with MGM Resorts International in November 2018, just over six months after the practice was legalized federally. The league currently maintains partnerships with FanDuel, DraftKings, and MGM Resorts/BetMGM.
Team entities, including stadiums, broadcast networks, and much more, are also eligible to partner with gambling companies.
