MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred Says Sports Betting Was Forced On Baseball

Posted on: July 12, 2024, 11:43h. 

Last updated on: July 12, 2024, 11:57h.

Devin O'Connor @CasinoorgDevinO Read More
Expertise: Asia Pacific Gaming, Commercial Gaming, Legislation, Politics.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred has doubled down on comments he previously made that the professional sports organization didn’t want sports betting to expand outside of Nevada.

MLB Rob Manfred sports betting baseball
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred says pro baseball didn’t want sports betting to expand legally across the US. A silver lining, however, is that monitoring sports gambling for suspicious betting patterns is easier in a regulated environment. (Image: Getty)

Speaking this week with The Dallas Morning News ahead of this weekend’s MLB All-Star Game being played at Globe Life Field in Arlington, home of the Texas Rangers, Manfred said pro baseball opposed the May 2018 US Supreme Court ruling.

The landmark decision repealed the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) signed into law in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush that limited single-game sports betting to Nevada. The Silver State was grandfathered into the law because casinos at the time were running such sports gambling operations.

We went to the Supreme Court trying to stop sports betting in New Jersey,” Manfred said in reference to New Jersey’s legal challenge that PASPA violated anti-commandeering interpretations of the US Constitution. “Once you had the Supreme Court decision, I don’t see it going backward.”

The historic ruling opened the floodgates for states to decide whether gambling on sports is legal within their borders. A little more than six years later, 38 states and Washington, DC, have regulated sports betting.

Integrity Paramount

Several major betting scandals have rocked MLB since 2018, most notably involving one of the game’s biggest superstars Shohei Ohtani, whose interpreter stole money to bet on sports. Manfred says no issue is more important than protecting the integrity of the game and keeping rogue influences outside of the diamond.

It’s important to say that our number one issue, the single thing on which there is no compromise, is the integrity of the game on the field,” Manfred said.

However, Manfred acknowledged that it’s now easier to monitor sports betting to detect irregular activity that could hint that a game is being fixed or a player is in on a ruse to deliver a certain outcome.

“In the era when all sports betting was illegal, it was impossible to monitor. Now, because sports betting is legal, we have extensive monitoring in place,” Manfred explained.

The commissioner said such monitoring helped the league detect several incidences this year involving prohibited persons under the league’s rules from participating in sports betting.

“Our ability to monitor is one of the positives that comes with legalization. In the old days, you didn’t have gambling scandals. It didn’t mean they didn’t have gambling. You just didn’t know about it,” Manfred stated, seemingly forgetting about Pete Rose.

Record Revenue 

MLB played a vital role in the legal sports betting industry generating record gross revenue of $10.92 billion last year, a 44.5% year-over-year increase. Bettors risked $119.8 billion via licensed, regulated sportsbooks.

Betting has been cited as increasing fan engagement in professional and college sports.

As for MLB, the league has reported a 2% increase in live attendance this year and television viewership is up. ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” is up almost 10% from 2023, while games on FS1 and MLB Network are respectively up 7% and 18%.