shohei ohtani alert

league is kind of in a no win situation here, if they sweep it under the rug people will say they're playing favorites with their marquee player, if they punish him while still running 500 Fanduel ads on every broadcast it looks even dumber

there are layers. if he's betting on other sports, off of team facilities, it's a lenient suspension. if he's betting on other sports on team facilities, it's a more serious suspension. if he's betting on baseball, or worse yet, betting on baseball games involving himself, that's when it gets real

Players can't bet on other sports off of team facilities? Sure about that?

Frogs otm

There is nothing worse for baseball than gambling. That's what I've always said, and that's what I'll say when I'm podcasting in the DraftKings Sports Podcast Booth in the Luxor Level of the Las Vegas A's stadium.

— Grant Brisbee (@GrantBrisbee) March 20, 2024

Shohei Ohtani has always bet on himself – and it’s about to reap huge rewards.https://t.co/dWeOtJbVjQ

— CNN (@CNN) July 11, 2023

omg

Pretty big (5.3M) quake just hit Tokyo, what are the odds?

Players can't bet on other sports off of team facilities? Sure about that?

that's the nfl rule, i think

Pretty big (5.3M) quake just hit Tokyo, what are the odds?

― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, March 20, 2024 9:33 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

ippei had 25-1 on 6.0 or bigger

Omg

Haven't caught up yet, so I know very little. Except: someone will be popping up any minute to re-litigate his HOF case.

Clem:

Sports betting is illegal in California
Mathew Bowyer, an illegal bookie in Orange County, is under investigation from the FEDs/IRS
4 months ago Bowyer's house was raided and his assets and devices were seized
LA Times FOIA'd the docs and noticed two $500k wires from "Shohei Otani" in the wire-transfer data both with the line item comment "loan"
LA Times reported that $4.5M was wired from Shohei's account to Bowyer or his various associates

Ippei Mizuhara is a Japanese-American interpreter for Shohei Ohtani
His salary is ~$300k/yr from the LAD, up from ~$200k/yr from the LAA

Ippei Mizuhara gave an interview yesterday where he admitted he had a massive gambling problem and he claimed to ask Shohei to repay his debts
Ippei claimed Shohei did the wire transfers himself from his password-protected personal computer because he did not trust Ippei with the money

Later yesterday, Mizuhara gave ANOTHER interview in which he denied Shohei had any involvement in the wire-transfers and had no knowledge of Ippei's gambling debts

Ohtani's lawyers come out with a statement that Mizuhara stole $4.5M from Ohtani

LAD fire Mizuhara

I will defer to the lovely felicity redwell on all things legal, but I am willing to wager (😉) sending wire transfers for illegal activity under false pretense ("loan") is not looked upon favorably by federal investigators.

so you see, your honour, i allowed my friend to use my computer and that’s why it might LOOK to the layperson that i visited those websites myself

Oh no tani

i know they were best buds but would ippei really have access not only to shohei’s computer but to his bank accounts containing millions of dollars and the presumably somewhat elaborate verification steps involved in moving that amount of money?? cmon man

I'm curious who the Ohtani "representative" is who made Ippei available for interviews.

if it really was that amount of money i suppose it is possible that the bookies were laying down some heavy threats and shohei really did cover the loss, the first story was correct, and ippei’s trying to protect his friend by telling the second story because he now realises how much hot water the first story puts shohei in. sorry just catching up lol

more reportage, although not much news other than that everyone on the dodgers feels very awkward right now

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/03/21/shohei-ohtani-interpreter-scandal/

share/free link: https://wapo.st/4ctET2H

...Thinking it might be best if Ohtani decided that for himself, reporters asked him if he had a moment to speak as he turned and headed out of the clubhouse. Dodgers staffers instead requested they clear the way, as Ohtani walked out of the room, saying a Japanese phrase reporters translated as “have a good night” as he departed.

“I hope the situation — I hope Sho is good,” his teammate Mookie Betts said, when asked about how the situation affected his team Thursday. “At the end of the day, we have to take care of our jobs … no matter what cards we’re dealt, we’ve gotta go play ’em.”

oh mookie, not the best time for a gambling metaphor but that's ok

Thanks for the Coles notes, Steve. Doesn't sound good is my first impression.

General comment, nothing specifically to do with Ohtani: gambling is pretty much the worst offense in baseball, short of violent criminal activity outside the game. Far worse than PEDs. And it doesn't matter whether or not you're betting on your own team. Accrue enough debt, and you're vulnerable to anything.

And baseball, like every sport, is now in bed with the gambling industry. So when this boomerangs back, my first thought is "Well deserved." It's like Tony Bennett's famous line in the famously awful The Oscar: "If you lie down with pigs, you get up smelling like garbage."

i think that if anything they'll find that this was a "gray area" and officially warn Ohtani that he can't get too close to gambling. "no evidence of anything else" etc. i think it would be arguably suicidal for MLB to ban him tbh.

I see a huge (for anyone but Shohei to what essentially amounts to a rounding-error) fine, a carefully-worded half-hearted apology, maybe an SNL cameo where they lightly rib him (but not too hard), typical damage control theater...

Whatever comes out of this, Ippei probably gets away making more money off his NDA/fall-guy-settlement than he ever would have as an interpreter, I mean, what are the odds?!?!!

I guess Ippei loses out on a dream job but can probably "parlay" it into another gig.

bet on it

i know they were best buds but would ippei really have access not only to shohei’s computer but to his bank accounts containing millions of dollars and the presumably somewhat elaborate verification steps involved in moving that amount of money?? cmon man

I haven't gambled in a long time but typically your credit line/marker is determined by your personal income/credit/assets/collateral as opposed to your clout/proximity to wealth, though I should note I have no idea what software Bowyer used to determine Ippei's line.

but yeah there's no way Ippei stretches a mid-9-figure line on low-6 income. That's like >3 orders of magnitude risk which is unfathomable in any financial scenario.

It would be different if Ippei was missing some fingers and a ramen chef in a sleazy part of town next to Pachinko parlors and Keirin tracks, but this honestly does not track. He's either the fall-guy or the middle-man imho.

Smells really shitty all the way down, but should note that Ippei's employer is not Ohtani but LAA (well up until 4 months ago) who has one of the most toxic reputations in MLB if not all of pro sports.

Yeah I saw people talking about the Angels yesterday, the Tyler Skaggs stuff is just horrendous.

Bowyer supposedly used Ohtani’s name to attract clients, I guess you could posit that he was generous with Ippei’s credit based on how useful namedropping Ohtani might have been to him.

It speaks volumes when your Director of Communications is serving 22 years in federal prison.

Bowyer supposedly used Ohtani’s name to attract clients, I guess you could posit that he was generous with Ippei’s credit based on how useful namedropping Ohtani might have been to him.

― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Thursday, March 21, 2024 11:50 AM (one minute ago)

src?

Jon Heyman of all people (!) pulling no punches: https://nypost.com/2024/03/21/sports/shohei-ohtanis-camp-wants-you-to-believe-hes-a-financial-dimwit/

Mizuhara’s firing is a huge loss for him since he was said to be extremely well-paid as an interpreter for a guy who almost never speaks (not to the press, anyway). The real job morphed to become Ohtani’s occasional driver, workout partner and constant companion.

xp ESPN:

Sources close to the gambling operation told ESPN that Bowyer dealt directly with Mizuhara, who placed bets on international soccer matches and other sports -- but not baseball -- starting in 2021. A source said Bowyer was aware of the name on the wire transfers but chose not to ask any questions as long as payments came in; however, the source said Bowyer allowed people to believe Ohtani was a client in order to boost business.

Bowyer's attorney, Diane Bass, told ESPN: "Mr. Bowyer never met or spoke with Shohei Ohtani." She declined to answer any other questions.

if it's true that he never bet on baseball then I can't imagine how the public is gonna care about any of this. unless maybe ESPN Bet recommends which side you take on the over/under games suspended line

Cos the bookies operation was illegal maybe?

honestly don't believe Ohtani would risk everything by gambling; but there's no way mlb doesn't look into this?!

MLB only knows it cos the Feds do, they may follow their lead I guess depending what emerges.

Will Shohei Ohtani bat before Mookie Betts at all this season, just so we get “Ohtani-Betts” in the lineup. Pleaseee do it

— Otis B. Driftwood (@OtisDriftwood00) March 21, 2024

omg

Passan, as usual, sums it up:

"When they were in the dugout yesterday Shohei Ohtani knew that there was gambling involved with Ippei Mizuhara..

At some point yesterday the story changed and the statement was then that it was a theft..

What happened during that time we don't know yet" ~ @JeffPassan #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/jkVS2hU98g

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) March 21, 2024

It would genuinely shock me if Ohtani is implicated directly in gambling. He's got a lot to lose and his track record is pretty clean. Ippei seems like a toxic hanger on who let his gambling addiction get the best of him. That said, as a Giants fan, it would certainly not break my heart if Ohtani comes out of this with some sort of suspension lol

sure but like, what do we really *know* about Shohei Ohtani? all the information we get is second or third hand stuff. he got married recently to a woman nobody seemed to know he was even dating.

i don’t think the public will care at all that bowyer’s operation was illegal in california

Ippei seems like a toxic hanger on

Ippei seems like a toxic hanger on

src? lol

also hello and welcome to ILB!

Craig Calcaterra just dropped a free newsletter on this which addresses the various theories and goes into some of the problems with the bank transfers:

https://cupofcoffee.beehiiv.com/p/cup-coffee-extra-breaking-shohei-ohtaniippei-mizuhara-story

Btw, why do Americans use the term wire transfer? I thought I was going to have to read up and find out it was a bank transaction made in person but no, bank transfer.

Because all the pieces matter.

i imagine because such transactions were long ago done by telegraph?

certain financial shenanigans are still legally referred to as 'wire fraud'

maybe i'm a sucker but i have a hard time reconciling the fact that the bets were largely on NBA, NFL, and college football games and the fact that ippei grew up in america w/ the idea of ohtani being the gambler here. he just does not seem like the most likely suspect given that. maybe you could say that ohtani enjoyed the vicarious thrill of gambling via ippei's wagers even tho i can't imagine he has much understanding of or interest in football, in particular. i do believe he knew that ippei was gambling bcuz i don't think you can be that close w/ someone gambling that much money and not have some inkling. and i do think ohtani likely gave him the money to cover the losses... i think his contract deferral is an indicator that he's somewhat selfless when it comes to money. so that tracks for me. but the idea of ohtani wagering on ohio st-mich... that's a tougher one for me

the bets were largely on NBA, NFL, and college football games

honestly i'd be pretty impressed if he were betting on ohio state-michigan