A day after federal prosecutors indicted Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz on charges related to an alleged bet rigging scheme, Major League Baseball announced new limits on legal sports betting in an effort to prevent similar incidents in the future.
The league announced Monday that effective immediately all MLB Authorized Gaming Operators will cap wagers on pitch-level markets at $200 and exclude those bets from parlays.
2 MLB pitchers indicted for sports betting; one arrested in Boston
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The limits will cover more than 98% of the U.S. betting market, MLB says, and are intended to mitigate the risk that a single player might deliberately alter their performance for gambling purposes in a similar way.
The restrictions come in response to allegations that Clase and Ortiz conspired with gamblers to throw specific pitches for balls so that bettors could place prop bets and profit. Clase’s involvement allegedly dates back to May 2023, and Ortiz allegedly joined the scheme this past June.
The gamblers allegedly won at least $450,000 wagering on Clase and Ortiz’s pitches, and the two pitchers allegedly received kickbacks in exchange for their assistance.
In its announcement, MLB said “micro-bet” pitch-level wagers — or bets on things like whether a pitch will be a ball or a strike, or an individual pitch’s velocity — present heightened integrity risks because they focus on one-off events that can be determined by a single player and can be inconsequential to the outcome of a game, making the activity harder to detect.
“The risk on these pitch-level markets will be significantly mitigated by this new action targeted at the incentive to engage in misconduct,” MLB said. “The creation of a strict bet limit on this type of bet, and the ban on parlaying them, reduces the payout for these markets and the ability to circumvent the new limit.”
In a statement, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred thanked sportsbook operators and local officials for their assistance while expressing hope that other leagues will follow in their footsteps.
“Since the Supreme Court decision opened the door to legalized sports betting, Major League Baseball has continuously worked with industry and regulatory stakeholders across the country to uphold our most important priority: protecting the integrity of our games for the fans,” Manfred said. “I commend Ohio Governor (Mike) DeWine for his leadership on this issue over the last several months. I also commend the industry for working with us to take action on a national solution to address the risks posed by these pitch-level markets, which are particularly vulnerable to integrity concerns. We look forward to continuing to work with all stakeholders, including licensed sports betting operators, elected officials and regulators, to ensure we are always protecting the integrity of our game.”
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