MLB Facing Biggest Gambling Scandal in Sports History – Shohei Ohtani Game Fixing

Shohei Ohtani has earned his reputation as the most versatile player in modern MLB history. He has dominated both as a pitcher and as a hitter. The dual threat capability of this player made him the most coveted free agent on the market this off-season. The Dodgers signed him to a record 10 years $700M contract. This would be the final piece of the puzzle to make the Dodgers a team capable of winning multiple World Series over the next decade. But that dream is quickly falling apart.

While investigating activities of an illegal bookmaker in California, law enforcement officials discovered bank wires for millions of dollars from Ohtani to this alleged bookmaker. The Dodgers quickly jumped out in front of the story relaying information from Ohtani’s camp that the baseball player’s interpreter racked up gambling debts which Ohtani helped him pay off. The Dodgers fired the interpreter and were ready to move on. Then the story from Ohtani’s people changed. Now they were saying the interpreter stole the money.

If this were true, it would probably mean criminal charges for the newly unemployed interpreter. Ohtani and the Dodgers would hope that they could then proceed with the season and pursue their goals of winning the 2024 World Series. But not so fast.

A new string of tweets has laid out supposed bets placed by the interpreter that coincide with days where Ohtani was pitching. It appears that these huge bets were placed on the opposing team and their total runs scored (over-under), something that the starting pitcher has almost complete control over.

Here is the tweet string from a person called Timmy Stokes on the X platform. There is no way to verify what he is saying is true at this point. Where did he get the reported bets information? What bookie would take these huge bets from a player who is actually involved in the game? What bookmaker would take a $10M parlay at +2500 odds? That is a $250M payout if it hits. That would sink almost every single one of the largest bookies on earth. Bets this enormous make waves regardless if they are done legally or illegally. Still, we are going to share the tweets because they are relevant at this point in that other sports outlets are sharing them as well.

Ohtani Throwing Games: A Thread
(1) July 22, 2022, a bet of $1,000,000 was placed for the Atlanta Braves to score over 6.5 runs against the Los Angeles Angels parlayed with Braves -3.5. The bet was placed with a bookie in Mizusawa (Shohei’s home town). The pitcher for the Angels

— TimmySmokes (@timmy_smokes) March 22, 2024

(2) that day? Shohei Ohtani. That stats for Shohei that day were as followed, 6.1 IP, 6 H, 6 ER and 1 BB. At the plate you ask? 0-3 with 2 strike outs. Was he throwing games? I’ll let you decide that

— TimmySmokes (@timmy_smokes) March 22, 2024

(3) July 4, 2023 (America’s Birthday!!!) a bet was placed in the same hometown with the same bookie for 4.2 million dollars on the over for the Padres run total! Guess who was pitching? You guessed it! Shofraud! 5 IP 5 ER while going 0-3 at the plate….

NOT EVEN 10 DAYS LATER A

— TimmySmokes (@timmy_smokes) March 22, 2024

(4) 10 MILLION DOLLAR BET WAS PLACED. Same bookie, same town….. a parlay with +2500 odds.
•Astros -1.5
•Astros o 6.5
•Shohei o 4.5 runs allowed
•Shohei u 6.5 K
•game total o 11.5
Shohei’s line for that day, 6 IP, 9 H, 5 ER while allowing 2 home runs. Shohei went 2-5 at the

— TimmySmokes (@timmy_smokes) March 22, 2024

Obviously these numbers are very fishy. The +2500 parlay didn’t hit. The X account is a guy with 1,000 followers and no real credentials to speak of. Why would law-enforcement allow this information to leak?

So many questions. But, one thing is for sure. Something stinks to high heaven. It’s not looking good for Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers. The original story was that Ohtani knew of the gambling debt and helped the interpreter pay it off. Then they changed their story when they realized that any knowledge of gambling on baseball is enough to warrant punishment by MLB.

MLB commented on the situation by saying:

“Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhari from the news media. Earlier today, our Department of Investigations (DOI) began their formal process investigating the matter.”

If true, this scandal would make the Pete Rose betting scandal look like child’s play. If Ohtani was actively betting on games which he was fixing it would be the biggest betting scandal in all of sports history. The 1919 Black Sox scandal was one in which key team members threw the World Series for money. This scandal would be one where a single player tanked his team repeatedly to gain millions of dollars in profit. The amount of money and visibility are much greater than they were 100 years ago.

There is little to no doubt that as sports betting becomes more available and more widely accepted as the norm, situations like this will occur on a more frequent basis.

It should be noted that as of the time of publication of this article, the LA Dodgers are still the overall favorites to win the World Series at +325 at SportsBetting.ag sportsbook.

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