Authors: Rustin Dodd, Stephen J. Nesbitt, and Cody Stavenhagen
When Major League Baseball Announcing a lifetime ban Details of San Diego Padres infielder Tupita Marcano’s misconduct were laid out Tuesday: 387 bets placed at legal sportsbooks, 231 of which were MLB-related and 25 with his then-employer. Pittsburgh Pirates. He allegedly bet more than $150,000 on baseball.
Marcano is not a particularly savvy bettor. According to MLB data, he won only 4.3% of his bets, most of which were parlays. But the league released a wealth of facts on Tuesday — the same day that Shohei Ohtani’s former translator, Ippei Mizuhara, Pleaded guilty to bank and tax fraud — underscores a recurring theme as the sports world grapples with the added shock of the dramatic rise in legalized gambling in the United States.
In most states, betting has never been easier. But in a world of legal online sports betting and smartphones, it’s also become easier than ever for leagues to track bets and, in their view, protect the competitive integrity of the sport. In addition to Marcano’s lifetime ban, MLB also announced one-year bans for Oakland Athletics pitcher Michael Kelly and three minor leaguers – Jay Groome of the Padres, Philadelphia Phillies Jose Rodriguez of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Andrew Salfranc of the Arizona Diamondbacks. All four were found to have placed bets on Major League Baseball (MLB) while in the minors.
According to MLB, the news comes after an investigation that included interviews and collaboration with the league’s sports betting partners, a process that provided a window into the surveillance systems for legal sports betting. . The system includes outside companies such as US Integrity, a monitoring services company that works with major sports leagues and sportsbooks.
“As betting becomes more acceptable and more popular, it’s dangerous for the league to allow these players into the sports betting market,” said John Wolohan, a sports law professor at Syracuse University. “It’s dangerous for the league. It’s really uncomfortable. That said, the league is partnering with the DraftKings and FanDuels and casinos of the world anyway, so in some ways they’re taking the money and hoping things don’t blow up in their face.
While leagues such as MLB are increasingly attracting gambling partners, they are trying to implement safeguards to prevent players, coaches and team or league employees from gambling in their respective sports.
When a bettor (any bettor, for that matter) logs into a betting app, integrity analysts instantly pinpoint their location within a few feet. Global positioning is one way to ensure players can place bets within team facilities without being detected. There are other ways. Social media is closely monitored and the company uses real-time data and proprietary algorithms to monitor betting trends and flag any unusually large betting line movements. If a disturbing trend is discovered, it will usually be sent to someone on the investigative team who will look into the matter more deeply.
If a case becomes more suspicious, the monitoring service will alert sportsbooks and leagues. In some cases, sportsbooks have in-house teams monitoring for unusual line movements and betting behavior.
American integrity has now become A joint venture called ProhiBet Committed to using encryption technology to prevent athletes, coaches and league officials from placing bets in the first place. In May 2023, the company launched a reporting hotline to allow people in the sports community to report suspected gambling.
Americans for Integrity did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
As for Marcano and the other suspended players, MLB said a legal sports betting operator alerted the league in March about past betting activity on accounts associated with major or minor league players. But none of these players were found to have participated in the games on which they placed bets. A person familiar with the league’s investigation Tell CompetitorEvan Drelic“This information comes to light as legal sportsbooks take new proactive steps to enforce their policies,” although they did not elaborate on the changes.
Peter Bayer, former Class A minor league pitcher, Listed last year Said he had been ruled ineligible by MLB for betting on baseball since 2021. League investigators found that Bayer made more than 100 baseball-related bets in 2020, including at least 12 on his organization, and accused him of trying to hinder the league’s investigation.
Bayer’s bets were first discovered by the Colorado Gaming Department, which designated him a prohibited bettor and reported his bets to Major League Baseball (MLB).
For then-Colorado Gaming Division Director Dan Hartman, cases like Bayer’s demonstrated cooperation among regulators, law enforcement and alliances.
“We’re not going to prevent incidents like this,” Hartman said last year, but proper oversight could allow the league to address these issues.
Players placing legal bets on their own behalf can have significant consequences.
“Honestly, I’ve seen this happen time and time again in the years I’ve been involved in this,” said Steve Paine, co-founder of the consulting firm Evolve Sports Integrity. “It’s these basic checks. You think if they were trying to do something wrong, they would find a way to hide it – use fake names and fake accounts. But they don’t. They just place bets in their own name.
However, leagues and integrity companies are also working to eliminate more complex incidents, such as athletes placing bets through friends or family.
In 2020, an independent regulatory commission found that former Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge provided his brother with inside information regarding a potential move to Sevilla Football Club. In 2021, Atletico Madrid defender Kieran Trippier was briefly suspended for allegedly tipping off a friend. Stateside recently, news broke that one of two dozen Iowa State and Iowa State athletes Penalties for gambling-related offenses Using a FanDuel account in his mother’s name.
Alabama baseball coach Brad Bohannon was fired last spring, days after US Integrity discovered a man named Bert Neff Questionable bets placed on the Alabama vs. LSU baseball game in Cincinnati. This incident brought shame to the NCAA and led to Criminal charges against Neffbut it is also a prime example of the normal and fast functioning of the sports betting machine monitoring process.
“The system works,” Louisiana Gaming Control Board Chairman Ronnie Johns said last year Alabama case. “We must protect the integrity of sports betting or the system will collapse.”
It’s not hard to imagine a scheme evading the system for a period of time. Especially if an account’s name is not that of a banned bettor, or someone with the same surname, or if it only makes modest and non-worrying bets. But over time, sportsbooks, regulators and Betting Integrity Corporations have become leaner, more sophisticated, and more savvy about the new ways bettors are trying to exploit the system.
“I think it’s always a bit of a cat-and-mouse situation,” Paine said. “Those who try to place bets that they shouldn’t, they’re always going to find ways to try and hide it – whether that’s placing bets through family members, or through using other third parties to place bets, or trying to use technology like VPNs. Make the bet look like it’s from another country.
But the technology used to monitor such activity is rudimentary. Even those who try to find vulnerabilities have ways to identify them.
“If they’re using the same iPhone they used to place bets in their name two years ago, then these companies can find the link,” Paine said. “It’s not just the account name. It’s, ‘Did you place your bet through your home router? Is it the same device? There are a lot of technical data points that these sophisticated companies can use to detect fraud.
One problem facing the league is that these safeguards only apply to legal bets, not those made through illegal sportsbooks, as in the case of Suwon, who admitted to stealing more than $17 million from Ohtani to pay off gambling debts. “Those things you’ll never catch,” Wolohan said. “Or you shouldn’t get caught unless there’s a criminal investigation into the bookmaker.” Suwon’s case stems from a criminal investigation into bookmaker Mathew Bowyer, believed to be part of a Southern California gambling ring key people.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred spoke in a statement on Tuesday about the importance of the league’s continued cooperation with regulators and sportsbooks.
“Since the (2018) Supreme Court ruling opened the door to legalized sports betting, we have been working with licensed sports betting operators and other third parties to bring transparency from a regulated sports betting system from an integrity standpoint. We are in a better position. “Major League Baseball will continue to invest heavily in integrity monitoring, education programs and awareness initiatives to ensure strict compliance with this fundamental rule of our game. “
Paine previously headed the UK Gambling Commission’s sports betting intelligence unit before co-founding a betting integrity firm that advised the governing bodies of a number of European and international sports leagues. He recalled hearing an international federation official discuss the overall problem of gambling. Paine said the official mused that the league can do everything right and prepare for every possibility, but there will still be a small number of bad actors who break the rules — no matter how powerful the education, no matter how powerful .
“You can’t prevent everything bad from happening,” Paine said. “But can you recognize it when it happens? Can you address it quickly, fairly and forcefully? I think that’s the key. It’s unrealistic to think that any sport is immune to this. Put the right safeguards in place Measure. Take it seriously. Invest in it appropriately. When bad things do happen, be prepared and deal with it. I think that’s what (Major League Baseball) is doing here.
“No one wanted big news like this, but they’ve found it and dealt with it. I don’t see how they could have sent a stronger message.
(Top photo of Marcano: George Kubas/Diamond Images via Getty Images)
