Impact of Recent False Reports on MLB Betting and Odds
Transcript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:03 - Let's bring in Mike Mazia.
00:04 We'll see how much we can cover here on the show.
00:06 Mike, great to have you back on the program
00:08 and a crazy weekend, of course,
00:10 for sports with big signings and sports betting.
00:12 It's just, you know, the news cycle, I guess, never stops.
00:16 - Yeah, Craig, great to be back.
00:18 Had a nice week in Florida.
00:20 Got to use the Hard Rock Bet app.
00:21 It was super smooth.
00:23 Seemed like they did a really nice job there
00:24 and we'll see how big the numbers, I mean,
00:26 is that has the potential to be the number one market
00:28 as we'll talk about later in the show.
00:29 But yeah, I just wanted to talk about
00:31 the Shohei Otani reporting, you know.
00:33 John Marossi has a great reputation and I know personally,
00:36 and he's always been great to me.
00:38 You know, that erroneous report, you know,
00:39 impacting the odds.
00:41 ESPN had a story today, a lot of bookmakers said,
00:43 yeah, of course we have to take that report seriously,
00:45 that he was gonna go to Toronto.
00:46 He was on that plane, apparently,
00:48 you know, according to that report.
00:50 The odds changed.
00:51 A lot of people bet on their Blue Jays thinking,
00:53 you know, that move was gonna happen.
00:55 Obviously it didn't.
00:55 We know there was a Dodgers blog,
00:58 you know, Baseball Writers Association reporter
01:00 that reported that was, you know,
01:01 the Blue Jays were happening, the Dodgers were out.
01:03 That wasn't the case.
01:04 So yeah, you kind of feel bad.
01:05 A lot of bettors, you know,
01:06 it really puts into perspective, you know,
01:08 this industry, Craig, you and I know, doing this job.
01:11 I mean, you have to be right.
01:12 And if you're, you know, at MLB Network, right,
01:14 the MLB owned TV operator as Marossi is,
01:19 like, you can't, you know, it's just bad optics.
01:21 The whole thing is a mess.
01:22 You know, it was good that he apologized.
01:24 The other guy didn't really seem to apologize
01:26 as well as I thought he should have.
01:27 I don't know him personally, but, you know,
01:29 thought, you know, he owed it to a lot of Blue Jays fans
01:31 who thought they were gonna get this player,
01:33 the superstar, once in a lifetime player, and didn't.
01:36 And then, you know, the odds makers
01:37 and just so many people that put their money in this
01:39 thinking these reports were credible.
01:41 They weren't.
01:42 And so, you know, it's bad optics
01:44 and it's another kind of murky situation for MLB
01:46 that's taking this gambling money
01:47 and you have your, you know, TV partner
01:49 or somebody going on there
01:50 and giving people the wrong information.
01:52 It's just something that bears monitoring
01:53 and I don't know what can be done here necessarily.
01:55 I don't know if anybody does, but, you know,
01:57 it's something to keep an eye on here.
01:59 - Yeah, look, obviously being in the thick of it,
02:02 I certainly can speak to it.
02:04 And, you know, I think, and first of all,
02:07 two prominent reporters, the person who reported it on,
02:10 I think it was Dodgers Nation or one of the blog sites.
02:13 Like, I mean, one of the reporters has done a great job
02:15 for a long time reporting.
02:17 I saw the same thing that you did.
02:18 I saw all the same stuff.
02:20 Everybody in the industry, Mike, are talking about this,
02:23 me included, you know, like I am texting back and forth.
02:26 And don't think for a second
02:28 that I'm not extremely familiar with Otani's agency
02:31 and the people that work for that agency too,
02:32 like asking questions during that time.
02:35 The thing is, and this is where like some decisions
02:39 inevitably I just have to be made,
02:41 whether it's the network or the individual,
02:43 is that in reporting, just generally speaking,
02:47 in all of the leagues,
02:48 there are some people who report the facts
02:51 and there are some people who also report rumors
02:55 or potential signings that could happen.
02:58 And that's, Mike, where the slope is at this point,
03:01 the slippery slope.
03:02 I don't know what the answer is because, you know,
03:05 very clearly to put out possibilities as opposed to facts
03:09 has to be something that the network wants
03:13 or else otherwise, Mike, they could have stopped it, right?
03:15 Like they could have immediately said,
03:16 hey, we don't want like rumors or people who may be,
03:20 or, you know, players that may be potentially interested
03:23 in signing in other places.
03:24 They could stop that if they want to.
03:27 They obviously encourage it.
03:29 So if that's the case,
03:30 then this is the end result of that possibility, right?
03:35 So I don't even know like where to say like who is to blame
03:38 or anything else.
03:39 Like I feel bad about the whole situation,
03:41 but for me personally, as somebody who's in the space,
03:45 several years ago, I chose to stop doing that
03:49 because I just wasn't really sure who it was benefiting.
03:52 Like there was nobody simply coming to me and saying,
03:56 hey, Craig, we're gonna pay you for rumors.
03:59 We're gonna pay you for like who may be going one place
04:03 or another.
04:04 And I suppose if I was Mike,
04:05 like if SportsGrid came to me and said,
04:06 hey, we want you to run this site,
04:09 that everything that you know about teams and players
04:11 who are rumored to go in certain places,
04:13 that's what we specifically want you to do.
04:16 And if that was the case, maybe I would have continued.
04:18 But Mike, I just didn't see the benefit to it
04:21 because it could potentially take me down a road
04:24 that this would play out.
04:26 So I stopped doing it and said, you know what?
04:28 If somebody signs or somebody gets,
04:30 that's all I'm gonna do.
04:32 And I'll talk about rumors and things that I hear
04:34 with people like you or online or do these spaces
04:37 or discussions.
04:39 But as far as like just straight up reporting,
04:41 it's only gonna be facts.
04:43 And I think that happens in the NFL.
04:45 And I think that happens in the NBA,
04:47 not a drama involved, I get that.
04:49 This guy wants to go here or there,
04:50 but it's kind of like more factual than it is in baseball.
04:53 And in baseball, it just seems to be wild west.
04:55 This is interested, this is interested.
04:57 This guy may go here or there.
04:59 So maybe that needs to get cleaned up.
05:01 I don't know, or maybe it doesn't,
05:02 because to me, it seems like it was encouraged.
05:05 I guess that's what I'm getting at here.
05:07 (upbeat music)
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