Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and the Ohio Casino Control Commission will not pursue further regulation on sports betting in the Buckeye State, with both parties satisfied with the latest action from Major League Baseball.
MLB announced on Monday that its authorized partners – which include FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, Fanatics and Bet365 – will no longer accept wagers of more than $200 on certain prop bets in any US state, while such bets – which include the speed of pitches or whether a certain pitch is a strike or a ball – will also be excluded in parlays.
The action comes after Cleveland Guardians players Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase were charged for crimes including wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy and conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery over their alleged roles in a gambling scheme in which prosecutors say the duo rigged individual pitches in order for bettors to win large sums.
In their statement explaining the new rules, MLB said that “micro-bet pitch-level markets present heightened integrity risks because they focus on one-off events that can be determined by a single player and can be inconsequential to the outcome of the game”.
“The risk on these pitch-level markets will be significantly mitigated by this new action targeted at the incentive to engage in misconduct. The creation of a strict bet limit on this type of bet, and the ban on parlaying them, reduces the payout for these markets and the ability to circumvent the new limit,” the league added.
DeWine had previously claimed that “the prop betting experiment in this country has failed badly” after both Ortiz and Clase were placed on leave in the summer, though the governor has since softened his stance on an outright ban on prop bets after the new measures were announced.
The governor greeted the announcement with a statement of his own that commended the actions of MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, adding: “By limiting the ability to place large wagers on micro-prop bets, Major League Baseball is taking affirmative steps to protect the integrity of the game and reduce the incentives to participate in improper betting schemes. I urge other sports leagues to follow MLB’s example with similar action.”
DeWine explained that the league’s “approach is sensible and well worth pursuing”, while the state’s Casino Control Commission said in a statement that “imposing its own regulatory rule regarding prop bets on Ohio sportsbooks at this stage could jeopardize the progress being made”. However, the Commission does reserve the right to enforce a new rule if it deems it necessary in the future.