MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred Addresses Sports Betting Concerns
Prop Bets Are One of the Main Worries Due to the Integrity Risks They Pose
Betting on Baseball, Anyone?
As sports betting continues to gain momentum, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has weighed in on the league’s position regarding this evolving landscape.
Recent MLB news scandals, including the Shohei Ohtani interpreter incident, have prompted discussions about the integrity of sports betting and its implications for leagues and teams.
Manfred addressed these concerns during the 2024 Associated Press Sports Editors Commissioners Meetings, emphasizing the MLB’s commitment to maintaining integrity while navigating the complexities of sports gambling.
Prop Bets and Integrity Risks
One area of contention highlighted by Manfred is prop bets, which allow fans to bet online on individual outcomes within specific events, such as an at-bat in baseball.
While these bets enhance the fan experience, they also pose integrity risks, particularly if players could be compromised to influence outcomes intentionally.
“We’ve been on prop bets from the very beginning,” Manfred stated, as reported by CBS Sports. “When we lobby in states, there’s always certain types of bets that we have lobbied against. I mean, the first pitch of the game, we really don’t want that available as a prop bet.”
Despite the challenges posed by sports betting, Manfred reaffirmed the MLB’s commitment to upholding integrity through robust monitoring and compliance measures.
The league employs a dedicated integrity and compliance team tasked with monitoring MLB games and gambling activities and identifying any irregularities that could threaten the integrity of the sport.
Players are prohibited from gambling on diamond sports, including baseball, to prevent conflicts of interest and uphold the integrity of the game.
While incidents like the University of Alabama baseball scandal have raised concerns, Manfred emphasized the effectiveness of the MLB’s integrity system in detecting and addressing suspicious gambling activities.
MLB Wasn’t Very Enthusiastic About Legal Betting
The betting news has reported on the problems and scandals that legal betting has generated, but the baseball commissioner sees a silver lining in legal sports betting.
Legalizing it allows for more control and makes things fairer. However, it seems baseball wasn’t exactly thrilled about jumping on the sports betting bandwagon. Manfred himself kind of joked that they got dragged into it through a court case!
“We were kind of dragged into legalized sports betting as a litigant in a case that ended up in the Supreme Court,” he said with a laugh.
“We find ourselves in this world and you can make an argument from an integrity perspective we’re in a better position,” he added.
For betting news, odds analysis, and more, visit Point Spreads Sports Magazine.
