The Ohio Casino Control Commission (OCCC) has confirmed it is actively working with Major League Baseball (MLB) to complete the investigation of Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz.
Flagged Wagers
According to the commission, an Ohio-licensed sportsbook initially alerted them on June 30 regarding suspicious wagering activity connected to a number of Guardians games. MLB later contacted the commission with related concerns.
OCCC’s probe focuses on Ortiz and two specific pitches that reportedly triggered unusually high betting activity, one during his June 15 start in Seattle and another in his June 27 outing against St. Louis.
A betting-integrity firm flagged the wagers and sent its findings to MLB.
The agency took similar action two years ago, during an irregular betting scandal targeting the University of Alabama’s baseball team that led to the firing of coach Brad Bohannon amid suspicious betting activity on the Crimson Tide’s game against LSU.
Prop Betting “Has Failed Badly”
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has been vocal about the risks of certain betting practices. At the start of the month, the governor asked the OCCC to completely eliminate prop bets from the state’s legal betting offerings.
In a July 31 statement, he spoke about the existing evidence that proves “prop betting is harming athletics” in the state, which, in his opinion, has reached “critical mass.”
DeWine also mentioned the threats made on Ohio athletes alongside the suspension of the two high-profile Ohio professional athletes to argue the “clear” harm brought to athletes and the game’s integrity.
“The benefits are not worth the harm. The prop betting experiment in this country has failed badly.”, he added.
While Ohio is one of the 16 U.S. states to prohibit prop bets on college athletes, such wagers remain allowed for professionals.
The commission has scheduled its next public meeting for August 20. Both Clase and Ortiz are currently on non-disciplinary paid leave through August 31.
For the time being, it remains unclear whether the investigations into the two pitchers are connected.