MLB Probes David Fletcher for Betting with Illegal Bookmaker

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00:00 (upbeat music)

00:03 - And Mike, great to have you back here on Newswire.

00:05 And I guess I asked you,

00:07 I think it was probably last week or the week before,

00:09 is this the end with Mitzuhara just pleading guilty?

00:12 And I think we've kind of thought it was the end

00:15 and now a new wrinkle to this.

00:16 And I wonder how much more we're gonna find out.

00:18 We're also gonna find out what kind of friend

00:20 David Fletcher was to Shohei Ohtani and his interpreter

00:23 indeed if this story is true.

00:24 - Yeah, Craig.

00:27 So the Associated Press reported over the weekend

00:28 that Major League Baseball is investigating David Fletcher

00:31 for potentially betting with this illegal bookmaker,

00:33 the same one that Shohei Ohtani's former translator bet with.

00:38 Obviously we know that this translator

00:42 is going to plead guilty to stealing $17 million

00:44 from Ohtani to pay back gambling debts

00:47 to this alleged illegal bookmaker, David Boyer.

00:50 Fletcher and Ohtani apparently were close friends.

00:52 Obviously the translator would have known both of them

00:55 from their time with the Angels.

00:56 So yeah, Craig, a lot to unpack here, obviously.

00:59 We know that Mizuhara is going to plan to plead guilty.

01:02 He could serve up to 33 years in federal prison

01:04 for a couple of charges, failing to file proper taxes

01:09 and then the fraud that he stole from Ohtani.

01:11 So David Fletcher, like you said, is he a good teammate?

01:14 Is there more to this story?

01:15 The federal authorities have cleared Ohtani

01:17 in this investigation.

01:19 In the ESPN reporting, it said that Fletcher bet

01:21 with a minor league player as well.

01:23 That minor league player bet on games

01:25 that Fletcher played in.

01:26 I don't believe Fletcher bet on baseball.

01:28 I think according to the reporting by the AP and ESPN,

01:30 but obviously we'll see on that front,

01:32 that's certainly prohibited.

01:34 As is betting with an illegal bookmaker,

01:35 Fletcher, like you said,

01:36 throwing knuckle balls in the minors.

01:38 I think he got lit up yesterday,

01:39 had a couple of solid outings.

01:40 He was certainly a speedy contact hitter

01:44 in his major league career.

01:45 Switch transitioned here and now faces this.

01:47 So we'll see, right?

01:48 I mean, how long does he play before the,

01:50 whether he's put on some sort of list,

01:53 a prohibited list until the investigation's pending

01:55 or they suspend them right off the bat indefinitely

01:58 until it's over.

01:59 We'll see.

02:00 I don't know how the, you know,

02:01 the MILB Players Association, how that works.

02:04 But, you know, they're clearly, like you said, Craig,

02:06 we're not done here.

02:07 Baseball wants to be done with this.

02:09 Ohtani is the face of the sport,

02:10 but now here we have a former teammate

02:12 and apparently close friend tied to the same investigation

02:17 that the interpreter is under.

02:18 And I think they met the illegal bookmaker at a poker game.

02:22 I think Fletcher and Mizuhara Boyer at a poker game

02:24 in San Diego in 2021.

02:26 So a lot here will be following it.

02:28 Certainly, I know obviously the major outlets will as well,

02:31 who have dominated the reporting here.

02:33 So yeah, Craig, a lot to go on

02:35 and you hope that Ohtani's cleared if you're baseball.

02:37 Maybe we don't worry so much about Fletcher.

02:39 It's fine if a minor league guy, contact, career hitter,

02:42 you know, 250 career hitter is, you know,

02:45 gets suspended or something to that extent,

02:47 but you don't want Ohtani tied up in this

02:49 and clearly this isn't over.

02:51 - Yeah, no, I mean, again, now we're gonna see

02:53 if Fletcher is forced to talk about this

02:54 and what comes out of that.

02:56 Okay, college football season is gonna be here

02:58 before we know it.

02:59 So I think we're like two months away

03:02 from the first college football game.

03:03 And I'm gonna guess we're gonna get more clarity

03:05 on this story before we get there.

03:07 What's the update?

03:08 What's the latest Mike on this college player prop betting?

03:12 'Cause that's really the next big sport here

03:14 for college sports.

03:15 You think that in New Jersey,

03:17 that folks are gonna be able to bet on this

03:19 as it gets banned pretty much everywhere

03:20 across the country?

03:21 - Yeah, Craig, that's a good question, right?

03:25 The NCAA has continued to come out with press releases.

03:28 I think it was Friday they put out a release that said,

03:31 "One out of three high profile players

03:33 deals with harassment from a betting related activity."

03:36 You know, whether it's a losing better

03:37 or somebody wanting to put pressure on them

03:39 to hit whatever prop that they're trying to bet.

03:41 So that's why the NCAA wants to get rid of this thing.

03:43 And then I think we saw another interesting reporting

03:45 from ESPN with help from Legal Sports Report,

03:48 that a lot of these major universities

03:50 have not shown their student athletes

03:52 kind of what the penalties are criminally,

03:54 if you're caught doing any sort of illegal betting.

03:57 That's something Matthew Holt, now with IC360,

04:00 the Integrity Monitor,

04:01 formerly known as US Integrity

04:02 before they merged with another company.

04:05 He had talked about this, that just, you know,

04:09 "Hey, it's your college career, you're not a pro athlete.

04:11 You know, maybe you wanna take a shot

04:12 'cause you don't have the money,

04:13 but at the same time, in some states,

04:14 it's a felony to do this.

04:16 And athletes should know that,

04:18 or at least be made aware of it, right?

04:19 You hope when you do these education programs,

04:21 they're enough."

04:22 Obviously, they weren't in the past.

04:23 I think athletes were confused,

04:24 especially at the pro level.

04:26 "Hey, what can we bet on?

04:27 Why can't we bet at the training facility?"

04:29 All these kinds of questions.

04:30 Now you have college athletes who are 18 to 22 years old,

04:33 not only getting harassed,

04:34 but then not understanding potentially

04:35 at some of these schools.

04:37 If I bet and I get involved

04:40 in some sort of criminal investigation,

04:42 you know, how long can I go to prison?

04:43 And that's something you would wanna tell athletes

04:45 to prevent them from doing this.

04:47 And again, that just goes back to the whole thing with Iowa

04:49 and the players betting on their parents' accounts.

04:53 I think when you're recruiting a player,

04:55 whether it's the coach, the university,

04:56 whoever the official is going for the visit,

04:59 the parents need to sit down too and say,

05:00 "If this kid has an account in your name,

05:02 or he's betting in an account with your name,

05:04 that needs to stop immediately.

05:06 You can't have this.

05:07 Your son or daughter will lose eligibility immediately.

05:11 They could be under investigation for who knows what,

05:14 if it is a federal crime in that state."

05:15 So yeah, I think a lot to be sorted out here.

05:19 And again, with betting kind of in its initial phase,

05:22 even though it's year six since the fall of PASPA,

05:25 this is something, again,

05:26 that's gonna have to need to be monitored

05:28 at the highest levels with integrity.

05:30 And then certainly education,

05:31 you gotta continue to make this better,

05:33 make this something that the players understand.

05:35 So if anything happens,

05:36 "Hey, we told you this was wrong."

05:38 - Right.

05:39 - Not, you know, coming out of left field of where,

05:40 "Wait, nobody told me that."

05:42 I think that has to be something that's solved.

05:44 - Yeah, and that, and listen,

05:45 that's a hard dynamic to accomplish,

05:47 especially, you know, in this landscape of sports betting.

05:50 All right, landscape of sports betting.

05:52 We haven't had one of these happen in hockey.

05:54 Here's a first.

05:55 Mike, we've got a coach saying,

05:56 "Hey, maybe somebody was betting

05:58 on the DraftKings account here."

06:01 We've seen this in all the sports

06:02 where coaches and players have alluded

06:03 to this sort of stuff, but here we go.

06:05 The head coach of the Dallas Stars

06:07 saying that a goal was disallowed.

06:09 You know, a little innuendo toward a sports book here.

06:12 I wonder if a little slap on the wrist

06:14 is coming somewhere.

06:15 - Yeah, Craig, this was Paul Bizonette,

06:17 who was an analyst at TNT.

06:20 And it was just surprising, given the, you know,

06:24 DraftKings, for him to come out and say the ref is,

06:25 and maybe it's rigged.

06:27 Again, I mean, I know he's an analyst,

06:28 but maybe not closer to the coach or player,

06:31 but yeah, that was super surprising.

06:33 I wouldn't be surprised if they tell him,

06:34 you know, "You can't be doing this right."

06:36 They don't want that perception out there,

06:39 and it is there.

06:40 A lot of people saying these games are rigged,

06:42 the officials are against this, whatever the case may be.

06:44 Yeah, this was eye-opener.

06:45 NHL has not been good on transparency with injuries

06:47 since taking business deals with sports books.

06:50 So this is something that, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised

06:52 if somebody says to him, "You can't be saying that."

06:54 - Yeah, I would agree.

06:55 Mike, great to catch up with you.

06:56 Thanks for all the great news, notes, and information,

06:58 and have a great rest of your week.

06:59 Thanks for coming on.

07:01 - Thank you.

07:02 (upbeat music)

07:05 [MUSIC PLAYING]

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