Xuan Thai, ESPN
Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for legalized sports betting in 2018, doomsayers have warned that the proliferation of wagering options — both legal and illegal — would bring an inevitable wave of scandal to sports. For the past year, at least, they appear to have been correct.
Since the beginning of March alone, betting-related controversies have swept through sports. A former Jacksonville Jaguars employee was sentenced to 6½ years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing $22 million from the team and wagering with it on FanDuel and DraftKings.
Then, the Los Angeles Dodgers fired Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, in the wake of media inquiries about $4.5 million in wire transfers sent from Ohtani’s bank account to a Southern California bookmaking operation under federal investigation. Ohtani has accused Mizuhara of stealing from him, and there’s no evidence his former interpreter bet on baseball. Mizuhara said that he previously had placed bets via DraftKings and assumed bets placed through the bookmaker were legal.
And Monday, ESPN reported that Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter is under investigation by the NBA following multiple instances of prop betting irregularities over the past several months.
“This is a nightmare for the leagues,” said John Holden, a professor at Oklahoma State University whose research focuses on sports law, management and betting. “Not only is everyone asking questions because of the spotlight of the Ohtani story, but now you have very suspicious playing time, injuries tied to these flagged betting interests [surrounding Porter]. … [It] raises questions about, ‘OK, what else is going on?'”
The betting industry has exploded since 2018. According to the American Gaming Association, the industry’s trade association, gross gaming revenue (GGR) for sports betting climbed to $10.9 billion in 2023, a 45% increase from the previous year alone.
The leagues have since embraced partnership and sponsorship deals with sportsbooks. The NBA, MLB and NHL each partnered with a sportsbook in the months following the 2018 Supreme Court decision. In 2021, the NFL partnered with DraftKings, Caesars Entertainment and FanDuel. The same year, the NBA announced expanded partnerships making DraftKings and FanDuel “co-official sports betting partners of the NBA.” And in spring 2023, the MLB announced a multiyear partnership with FanDuel “making its industry-leading sportsbook a co-exclusive Official Sports Betting Partner of MLB.”
“Every league that is in partnership with gambling operators and integrating all of this is putting someone at risk, because the more access you have and the more acceptable [betting] is, the more likely you are to start,” said Lia Nower, director of the Center for Gambling Studies at Rutgers University.
In August, ESPN signed a licensing deal with Penn Entertainment to create ESPN BET, a sportsbook for audiences in the U.S.
With legalized sports betting has come a handful of high-profile scandals in sports, not just in the professional leagues, but in college athletics as well. Temple University said this month it will review reports that show at least one game involving its men’s basketball team has been flagged by gambling watchdog company U.S. Integrity for unusual betting activity.
In May of last year, the University of Iowa and Iowa State said they were investigating dozens of athletes suspected of violating NCAA betting rules. About two dozen of those athletes faced criminal charges for registering accounts on mobile sports betting apps using different names; most of the athletes pleaded guilty to underage gambling and paid fines.
Additionally, the NCAA announced last month that the former head baseball coach for the University of Alabama knowingly provided information to a gambler who bet against the Crimson Tide in a game last spring. The coach was fired last year, and the school received three years probation and paid a $5,000 fine.
In June 2023, the NFL suspended three members of the Detroit Lions indefinitely for betting on NFL games the previous season. An offensive tackle on the Tennessee Titans was also suspended for six games for betting on other sports at the workplace. At least 12 NFL players have been suspended for violating the league’s gambling policy since 2018.
And in January 2023, ESPN reported that a suspended MMA coach was an agent for an offshore bookmaking operation for years.
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