Baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani is at the center of a betting scandal. (IMAGO / USA TODAY Network / IMAGO / Jayne Kamin-Oncea)
Tim Kurkjian has been covering Major League Baseball for 44 years. He has experienced a lot during this time – but nothing as strange as the current case involving Shohei Ohtani: “This is the strangest, most confusing and confusing story I have seen. Especially because he is the biggest star in baseball today – and one of the best in the history of the sport.”
29-year-old Shohei Ohtani is the unicorn of the MLB. He is both a world-class pitcher and hitter. The qualities of the so-called “two-way elite player” were worth a ten-year contract worth $700 million to the Los Angeles Dodgers in December. Ohtani is therefore the highest-paid player in sports history.
Translators with betting debts
But for a few days now his name has been linked to supposedly criminal dealings. ESPN revealed that $4.5 million was transferred from Ohtani’s bank account to an illegal bookmaker in Southern California that has long been targeted by the FBI. Ohtani’s long-time translator and close confidant, Ippei Mizuhara, said he was behind the transfers – and wanted to use them to pay off his gambling debts.
Whether this is true or whether Ohtani himself made the bet is now being investigated. The superstar spoke at a press conference – where Ohtani only read a statement, no questions were allowed: “I have never bet on baseball or any other sports – and I have never asked anyone else to bet on my behalf. Likewise, I have never contacted a bookmaker to bet on sports.”
Banned sports betting
Sports betting is prohibited in the US state of California. The MLB also prohibits its players from gambling. Anyone who still bets money on games from other clubs will be banned for one year. Betting on your own team is punishable by a lifetime ban. The LA Dodgers have since released translator Mizuhara.
Ohtani presents himself as a victim. “I didn’t know anything about the matter until a few days ago. Ippei stole money from my account and he told lies.” Ohtani did not address how someone could transfer $4.5 million from their account seemingly unnoticed. And he made it clear that he would not say anything further about the case but would turn the matter over to his lawyers.
2024-03-27 21:32:06
#Baseball #star #Shohei #Ohtani #problems #sports #betting
