So when he was asked this week what he thought about San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano being banned for life for betting on baseball last season while a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates, his response was as informed as it was blunt. .
“You know, I’m going to be very honest: [The betting] it was dumb,” Martinez said. “It’s frowned upon. It has been. In spring training, we go through meetings. Every now and then, someone at MLB tells us that baseball gambling is not allowed. It is not. Why do it? Why risk it?
Behind him, in the press conference room beneath Nationals Park, dozens of BetMGM ads dotted the monitors, illuminating for the cameras the irony of MLB’s current situation. As clear as MLB’s message to players is and always has been when it comes to betting on its games, its embrace of legal sports betting partners and the money they hand over is not only muddying the moral waters, but also charting scripts for temptation in clubs around the world. country.
Since the 2018 Supreme Court decision in Murphy v. allowed states to legalize sports betting, MLB – like many other professional sports leagues – has welcomed the influx of money and eyes on the sport that gambling can offer.
Sports betting has sprung up not only on the outskirts but also inside major league stadiums. Online betting companies like DraftKings and FanDuel began sponsoring game broadcasts and betting odds began appearing on television screens. Diamond Sports, the former Sinclair affiliate that is under contract to broadcast games for a dozen MLB teams, has agreed to replace naming rights partner Bally Sports with FanDuel on those broadcasts starting next year, according to a person familiar with the matter. with the agreement.
Meanwhile, in the past three months, MLB has seen its two biggest gaming scandals in more than 30 years, including one that consumed its most pristine and important star. Former Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Shohei Ohtani’s Ippei Mizuhara is facing a possible prison sentence after admitting that he stole more than $16 million from Ohtani to pay off massive gambling debts. MLB has emphatically cleared Ohtani of any wrongdoing and Mizuhara is not accused of betting on baseball. But MLB knows all too well that it takes a lot more effort to fill trust gaps than it does to create them.
“Strict enforcement of Major League Baseball rules and policies governing the conduct of the game is a critical component of upholding our most important priority: protecting the integrity of our games for fans,” commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement this week . “The long-standing prohibition of betting on Major League Baseball games by those who play the sport has been a fundamental principle for more than a century. We have made clear that the privilege of playing baseball comes with a responsibility to refrain from engaging in certain types of behavior that are legal for others.”
In fact, players and coaches said this week, despite all its new negotiations with sports betting partners, MLB has never been clearer with players about the importance of not betting on baseball.
Posters hanging on the walls of every home and visiting clubhouse — one in English, one in Spanish — not only tell players not to bet on baseball, but also include a huge QR code they can scan to learn more about why. The entire betting policy, word for word, is posted on the wall of each club. Both major league and minor league players go through endless spring training sessions to educate them and provide MLB with a firm denial: everyone knows the rules about baseball betting, so there is no excuse for those who do. violate.
“Not long ago, we had to take an online course. The guys are aware. There are signs everywhere in the clubhouse,” New York Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “…It’s sad to see people fall like this, but I think MLB continues its efforts to keep everyone informed and educated.”
These efforts, it should be noted, were never designed to keep gambling out of clubs entirely. High-stakes March Madness pools with entry fees measured in the thousands are annual traditions. Fantasy football leagues seize all club dialogue until mid-September. Players can bet on any sport except baseball, and many of them do. Increased access to smartphone betting apps and increased advertising for these apps does not cause gamblers to throw common sense to the wind.
“They are much more adamant about it now. Meetings in spring training get to the point where you’re like, ‘Okay, we get it. You can’t bet on baseball,’” Nationals outfielder Joey Gallo said. “It’s definitely increased even more now that it’s so prevalent everywhere. The game is in your face all the time now. They are definitely aware of that, pushing even harder.”
Still, as the suspensions handed down to Marcano and four other players this week proved, knowing the rules doesn’t always mean following them. MLB also tried to explain this. One of his partners notified MLB about the bets made by the suspended players.
An MLB spokesperson said the sports betting and compliance group maintains relationships with regulators across the country, as well as more than 20 partner sportsbooks whose contracts with MLB require them to be notified of any questionable activity. MLB also employs two third-party integrity monitoring companies, US Integrity and Sportradar, which monitor betting markets to flag suspicious activity.
But gamblers aren’t the only people at major league clubs who have access to the kind of information that can help them or others win bets. Coaches, official scorers, referees and even trainers also have the power to affect results.
“If you look at the Ohtani-Mizuhara thing, it reminds you: There are a lot of people with access to the locker room and players — interpreters, agents, personal trainers,” said Stan Brand, vice president of Minor League Baseball, who said there are Many are concerned about the temptation that minor league players may face when betting on baseball due to their low salaries. “They are all susceptible to being deceived by privileged information, which can be used to harm bets. That’s a huge vulnerability for baseball.”
An MLB spokesperson said that all major and minor league umpires participate in annual in-person or Zoom training on gambling rules and that all other non-playing league and club employees are trained on the topic when they are hired and regularly thereafter. Several club employees — the “clubbies” who are hired in part for their discretion in players’ personal affairs — said the importance of staying away from baseball bets and gamblers is conveyed as a non-negotiable rule of their employment.
Television and radio broadcasters are often hired by the team or broadcasting companies, so their training is less regular, although some feel so uncomfortable reading betting-related advertisements that they pass them on to colleagues. After one of its members was approached for information about awards voting that could have informed bettors last year, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America sent a letter to all of its members reminding them of best practices. The circles around the clubs are not small, and everyone in them sees the tightrope MLB is walking as it tries to preserve the integrity of its games in an age when the game has never posed a more accessible threat.
“You look at ESPN and we’re the underdogs, we’re not supposed to score eight runs,” Gallo said. “Yesterday we were playing [the Mets’] Pete Alonso, and we were sitting here looking [somebody on] TV saying, ‘Pete Alonso is going to hit a home run today. Put money into it. You’re like, ‘What the fuck?’ Is weird. You are about to play this game.
Ben Strauss and Gus Garcia-Roberts contributed to this report.
