Major League Baseball is in the early stages of the 2024 regular season, and it’s seeing a clear uptick in viewership from years prior.
The New York Yankees and Houston Astros game on Opening Day was the most-watched game ever on MLB.TV, with seven of the top 25 most-watched games ever occurring during this year’s Opening Weekend.
Overall, the first month of the season saw an uptick in attendance as well.
Popularity of sport is also at an all-time high across the globe, which coincides with the rise in sports gambling. MLB was placed in the spotlight with the investigation that involves former Los Angeles Dodgers interpreter Ippei Mizuhara, who is expected to plead guilty in the coming days for bank fraud and financial theft.
For a while, speculation ran rampant about Shohei Ohtani’s involvement in the matter, but he has since been cleared in federal investigations with Mizuhara admitting to his crimes.
A star of Ohtani’s stature being caught up in a situation of this magnitude is something that is clearly a stain, but the rise in sports betting is becoming an everyday thing for fans, given its ease of access. In an appearance on MLB Network’s “High Heat,”, commissioner Rob Manfred explained his stance on sports betting today.
“Sports betting is going to go on in the United States whether we have a relationship with any particular company, any gambling enterprise, or not,” he said. “I don’t think it’s unusual to have a set of rules that apply to fans and executives and private citizens out there on the one hand, and players and people who have the ability to affect the outcome of the play on the field.”
There have been cases of players betting on baseball, and around other sports leagues in which players have been suspended for their own involvement. Manfred also clarified that players within MLB have their own standard, that is different from the average fan:
“There are all sorts of situations in which you have a privilege, in this case the privilege to play in Major League Baseball, and that comes with a responsibility to refrain from engaging in certain types of behavior, in this case gambling, that are legal for other people,” he added.
MLB is actively looking to expand its reach in sports betting, given their annual revenue from legal sports betting clears $1 billion annually.
Baseball doesn’t see the oversaturation as an issue to the actual sport, as long as the money keeps funneling in. Players have to toe a fine-line with themselves, ensuring that they steer clear of any involvement that goes outside league guidelines pertaining to sports gambling.
Rob Manfred hopes that the investigation into Shohei Ohtani is a short one
Despite the federal investigation clearing Ohtani, MLB is still holding their own, and Manfred hopes it will be a short one.
Because Ohtani is one of the sport’s most prized stars, Manfred said he hopes it’s short, adding that he isn’t too sure in one way or another. The cloud of this matter is bad for baseball, and the influence that sports betting has in professional sports, Manfred echoes that a hasty conclusion is best.
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