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Originally Posted by smartDFS
agree sports betting was more stigmatized back then before it became so ubiquitous. what i meant on current landscape is leagues like MLB have partnered with sports gambling sites and it's now a cash cow. to keep milking that cow, they need to maintain the integrity of the sport and can't tolerate even the appearance that mlb players/staff are covertly betting. your superstar player betting seven figures on the dl is not a good look, esp if there were any mlb games involved. guess i'd be surprised if ohtani got off with only a small fine, all i'm saying.
If MLB games were involved, we're looking at 1-year suspension at a minimum and potentially lifetime suspension. It also makes no sense for Ohtani - it's at least plausible that Ohtani has a gambling problem and might need to compulsively bet on sports, but betting on your own sport/games isn't something you do out of compulsion, that's a business decision and one that makes no sense for someone whose career earnings might easily end up being multiple billions. Bowyer also seems like a fairly small time guy who would have no ability to buy off a moderately successful professional athlete, let alone Ohtani.
Quote:
Originally Posted by smartDFS
thanks, wasn't sure if it was solely based on ippei's word. wouldn't say there's zero reason for the bookie to lie in that spot... in one scenario you're facilitating insider trading / potential match fixing, in the other it's just vanilla bookmaking. but if he can produce records showing no mlb was involved and it ties out to the amounts of transfers from ohtani, that'd probably go a long way.
I agree that if match-fixing is on the table, you can plausibly argue that it's possible for Bowyer and Ohtani to be conspiring, but match-fixing is definitely well beyond the realm of possibility. The reason why this was somewhat more common in the past among players is that players just didn't make that much money and were easily tempted. If you had to fix professional matches, you'd be relying on coaches and refs and if it had to involve players, it would be guys that are paid close to the minimum.