The whole story of illegal betting by the interpreter of the great major baseball star Shohei Ohtani is suspicious, very suspicious. The worst thing is that everything suggests that this is only the tip of the iceberg and that many other cases risk exposing the unhealthy marriage between betting and professional sport.
• Read also: Major League Baseball investigates Ohtani and his interpreter
• Read also: Allegations of theft of millions of dollars: the interpreter of Shohei Ohtani fired
Last week, the news caused a stir. Performer Ippei Mizuhara was fired by the Dodgers for allegedly stealing $4.5 million from Ohtani’s bank account to pay a bookmaker in California, where sports betting is illegal.
Initially, a spokesperson for the Ohtani clan suggested that the Japanese Dodgers star had authorized the transaction to help his friend pay off his growing betting debts.
Shortly after, this version of events was thrown into the trash and the thesis of a massive theft by Mizuhara was instead put forward to explain the situation.
It smells pretty bad!
If Ohtani really agreed to transfer the money to the bookmaker to cover the losses of his interpreter and friend, he would find himself guilty of having participated in an illegal transaction.
It’s hard not to be cynical, in these circumstances, and not to believe that the version of events was suddenly changed to protect Ohtani from any legal problem or any form of penalty by major baseball.
Meanwhile, it is inconceivable that the jack of all trades could continue to slip away without commenting on the matter to the media.
Several questions
Performer Ippei Mizuhara with Shohei Ohtani. AFP
In all this mess, several questions remain.
Why did the version of history change completely, overnight?
How would any serious bookmaker authorize such astronomical debts to a performer who does not earn a huge salary?
How could Ohtani not know that such a sum was stolen from him? And why on earth would he give access to his account?
How could such sums have been transferred without the slightest verification from a bank to ensure that there was no fraud?
Major baseball took a while, but finally announced that there would be an investigation into this whole shady affair.
Do you really think that the Manfred circuit has an interest in pushing hard? For major league baseball, a unique attraction like Ohtani, an extraordinary athlete and a rare commodity who shines as much at bat as on the mound, is a godsend.
Times have not always been rosy for this sport, which has experienced a significant decline in viewership in recent decades. A player like Ohtani, the man with the 700 million contract, only brings positive things to baseball and the circuit has no interest in seeing the reputation of its great star tarnished.
More cases to come?
This whole affair brings back into the spotlight a reality that many prefer to avoid.
Professional sports are more than ever married to the lucrative sports betting industry.
A CBC study showed this year that a viewer is now exposed to advertisements relating to sports events for 21% of the broadcast duration of a match.
In 2023, in the United States, no less than 119.8 billion were wagered in sports betting, an increase of 27.5% compared to 2022.
The NFL alone has raked in a whopping $270 million in revenue from various commercial deals with sports betting companies.
The ongoing March Madness college basketball tournament is expected to generate $2.7 billion in bets, $585 million more than last year, according to estimates from the American Gaming Association.
A Siena College survey indicated that 39% of men ages 18 to 34 currently have online sports betting accounts.
Why talk about this dance of numbers? Because athletes do not live in a separate society. They are as avidly interested in the world of sports betting as ordinary people.
We are therefore certainly not at the last scandal involving betting in sport.
In football, receiver Calvin Ridley was the face of this new phenomenon by being suspended the entire 2022 season for betting on NFL games. Since then, 10 players have been suspended for betting stories. Athletes may be educated about the risks, but the temptation seems too strong in the face of overexposure to FanDuel, DraftKings, Bet99 and others.
There is no indication that Ohtani made the bet himself, but the fact that such a big name is involved in such a story shows that no one is safe.
One can only hope that the wonderful world of sports does not become doped with sports betting money to the point where it becomes truly corrupt.
2024-03-24 23:31:14
#Sports #betting #Ohtani #scandal #beginning
