A recent survey conducted by The Athletic showed that nearly one-fifth of respondents feel like MLB is not doing enough to protect against players collaborating with gamblers to manipulate game results for potential gambling profits. Despite these survey results, recent developments suggest MLB is being proactive in ensuring that betting scandals don’t happen again.
The Athletic surveyed 100 MLB players from 23 teams from February to May 2026. The question was, “Do you believe MLB is doing enough to safeguard against players teaming with gamblers?” Here were the results:
The fact that 45% of respondents either said “No” or had no opinion highlights a need for MLB to enhance its protections of game integrity amid the continued expansion of sports betting across the country.
In The Athletic article, players explained that they all know that it’s a lifetime ban to bet on baseball, but there will always be some “bad apples” who gamble their careers to try to make more money.
We saw this last year with the Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz betting scandal, where both Cleveland Guardians pitchers manipulated their pitches to win money on microbetting, which is where you can bet on the results of a specific pitch. This made it easier to manipulate, since it doesn’t have much of an impact on the overall outcome.
The question becomes: what more can MLB do to address this issue?
MLB put restrictions on micro betting, which is important because these wagers are so easy to manipulate. This includes $200 maximum wagers on these types of bets, which cannot be combined in parlays. This limits the amount staked and potential winnings. The goal is to deter players from getting involved in this, since the low profit wouldn’t be enough to entice them to risk their careers.
This is a positive first step to protecting game integrity with the continued growth of sports betting. However, MLB can go a bit further than this, collaborating with sportsbooks to potentially remove microbetting altogether.
There’s also the risk of offshore sportsbooks, which could still accept higher limits on these types of wagers, which is why integrity monitoring is ever important.
In Winter 2025, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation launched a probe into MLB. The goal is to take a closer look at whether MLB is doing enough to maintain game integrity. The Clase/Ortiz scandal pushed them into this closer investigation.
While the results of the investigation have not been released yet, it’s clear that MLB is working with the government to ensure that integrity protections are enhanced to ensure that a scandal like this doesn’t happen again.
Perhaps once it’s released, we could see additional restrictions put in place to protect against athlete and gambler collaboration to manipulate game outcomes.
With the micro bet restriction and willingness to collaborate with the Senate’s probe into the league, MLB is demonstrating that they’re doing what they can to protect game integrity. While The Athletic survey showed how some players are concerned that MLB is not doing enough, this was a small sample of 100 respondents.
Often, players are primarily concerned with their on-field performance, so they’re not always completely informed about topics like this one. With that in mind, the 18% of players who don’t think MLB is doing enough may not be aware of microbetting restrictions or any new policies put into place following the Clase/Ortiz scandal.
