"The Justice Department says that Clase and Ortiz repeatedly threw pitches out of the strike zone as part of a scheme with gamblers who would wager on those pitches to be balls. Sometimes, the bettors would also wager on the velocity of the pitches. These were the first pitches of at-bats, where sportsbooks offered action on whether it would be a ball or strike."
"This isn't a near miss. This isn't baseball being fortunate that the abuse of its competitive integrity was not worse. This is the shifting of games by cheaters, and more than that, by a form of cheating that sports leagues and sportsbooks have helped to explode. The problem here is not "gambling" in generalities, but a specific kind of gambling that our modern sports betting boom has made a feature of the landscape."
Federal prosecutors indicted Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz for repeatedly throwing pitches outside the strike zone to benefit gamblers who wagered on first-pitch balls and on pitch velocity. Clase reportedly did this in at least nine games over three seasons, helping bettors win at least $400,000. Ortiz allegedly did it at least twice this year, generating $60,000 for bettors and earning $12,000 himself. The scheme targeted early at-bat pitches, often the first pitch of an inning, undermining competitive integrity. The rise of volatile sports betting markets and wager types enabled and amplified this precise form of game manipulation.
Read at Slate Magazine
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