{"id":277217,"date":"2025-11-11T08:12:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T08:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/277217\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T08:12:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T08:12:13","slug":"us-sports-betting-crisis-grows-as-mlbs-clase-and-ortiz-indicted-over-alleged-rigged-pitches-mlb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/277217\/","title":{"rendered":"US sports betting crisis grows as MLB\u2019s Clase and Ortiz indicted over alleged rigged pitches | MLB"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2025\/oct\/23\/heats-rozier-and-blazers-coach-billups-reportedly-arrested-over-separate-gambling-claims\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The betting crisis in US sports<\/a> has spread further after Cleveland Guardians players Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were indicted over an alleged scheme to rig pitches during games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Bettors on baseball can gamble on whether individual pitches will be balls or strikes. Prosecutors allege claim that Ortiz was paid $5,000 for throwing an intentional ball during a game on 15 June. His teammate Clase, a three-time All-Star, is alleged to have been given $5,000 for facilitating the rigged pitch, alongside gamblers in the players\u2019 home country of the Dominican Republic. Prosecutors claim the pair did so again in a game on 27 June, receiving $7,000 each.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/story\/_\/id\/46906636\/guardians-emmanuel-clase-luis-ortiz-indicted-pitch-rigging\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan reported<\/a> that Ortiz was arrested in Boston on Sunday, while Clase has not yet been taken into custody.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cMLB contacted federal law enforcement at the outset of its investigation and has fully cooperated throughout the process. We are aware of the indictment and today\u2019s arrest, and our investigation is ongoing,\u201d Major League <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/baseball\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Baseball<\/a> said in a statement on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The pair face up to 65 years in prison if found guilty of the allegations, which include charges of fraud, conspiracy and bribery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Ortiz earned $782,600 in salary last season while Clase, one of the league\u2019s best closers, was paid $4.5m. They have been on paid leave since July while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/mlb\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MLB<\/a> investigated unusual betting activity during games in which they pitched.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cWe are aware of the recent law enforcement action, We will continue to fully cooperate with both law enforcement and Major League Baseball as their investigations continue,\u201d the Guardians said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The news comes after Chauncey Billups, a Hall of Fame NBA player, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2025\/oct\/23\/heats-rozier-and-blazers-coach-billups-reportedly-arrested-over-separate-gambling-claims\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">was arrested<\/a> in connection with a poker operation linked to the mafia, while Miami Heat star Terry Rozier was accused of taking part in a scheme to manipulate games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The betting crisis in US sports has spread further after Cleveland Guardians players Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-277217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}