Shohei Ohtani Says He Never Bet on Sports
Alleges former interpreter and best friend Ippei Mizuhara stole from him, lied.
LOS ANGELES—When Shohei Ohtani signed a $700 million free-agent contract with the Dodgers last December, it stood to reason that he would be the top story in baseball in 2024.
What no one could have foreseen, however, is that three days before this new season was about to begin, scores of reporters from around the world would pack like sweaty sardines into a tiny Dodger Stadium interview room to hear Ohtani emphatically deny he had any involvement with the illegal gambling sports scandal that has roiled MLB since news first broke last week that the Dodgers had fired Ohtani’s interpreter and right-hand man, Ippei Mizuhara, for alleged inappropriate dealings with a Southern California bookmaker under criminal investigation.
“Ippei has been stealing money from my account and has told lies,” a somber Ohtani told a room full of 75 or so reporters. ESPN’s Tisha Thompson first reported last week that $4.5 million dollars had been wired from Ohtani’s account to the bookmaking operation between 2021 and 2023. Today, Ohtani denied sending that money. “I do want to make clear that I have never bet on sports or willfully sent money to the bookmaker,” Ohtani said.
Today marked the first time Ohtani addressed the media since the story broke before the Dodgers’ second game in Seoul, Korea, last Thursday. The team flew back to Los Angeles shortly after, and held a spring training game against Ohtani’s old team, the Angels, at Dodger Stadium yesterday. Ohtani declined to speak with reporters yesterday, but said he would today. Team officials announced this morning that Ohtani would read a statement, but would take no questions.
Given that MLB is now investigating the situation, and Ohtani’s reps said last week they had contacted authorities over Mizuhara’s alleged theft, none of us expected Ohtani would say much of anything.
We were wrong.
Ohtani gave a detailed explanation of the events as he understood they took place, and tried to account for the discrepancies in the evolving narrative. At first, Mizuhara and a rep for Ohtani both told Thompson last week that the gambling debts were Mizuhara’s, that Ohtani never bet on games himself, and that Ohtani paid off Mizuhara’s debts to help his friend out of a bad spot. By the next day, both Ohtani’s rep and Mizuhara said Mizuhara had been lying, and that Ohtani was not aware that Mizuhara had a gambling problem, and had not paid the bookie to cover Mizuhara’s losses.
Calling it a “complete lie” that Ohtani had been aware of Mizuhara’s gambling debts, Ohtani said he only found out that Mizuhara had a sports betting addiction in a one-on-one conversation with his former interpreter after Mizuhara had told both the ESPN reporter and the Dodgers that Ohtani had paid the massive sum Mizuhara owed.
Ohtani told reporters today, “Ippei didn’t tell me about the media inquiry [from Thompson],” who wanted to know why Ohtani’s name had come up in wire transactions with the alleged illegal bookie.
Mizuhara addressed the Dodgers clubhouse after the team’s first game in Seoul, and told Ohtani’s teammates that he had a gambling problem and that Ohtani had paid his debts, multiple sources confirmed. The reason he did this was because he knew Thompson was about to publish her story and he wanted to inform the Dodgers ahead of time.
But today, Ohtani said that because Mizhuara spoke to the clubhouse in English and Ohtani did not have a translator, he only understood parts of what Mizuhara was saying. “I kind of felt something was amiss,” Ohtani said, and added that Mizuhara said he would explain the situation to him (in Japanese) privately back at the team hotel.
It was then, Ohtani said, that Mizuhara revealed to him that he had a gambling problem. Ohtani said he never agreed to make payments to a bookmaker. “Ippei admitted that he was sending money using my account to the bookmaker,” Ohtani said. “At that moment, it was obviously an absurd thing that was happening and I contacted my representatives.”
Ohtani said his representatives then discovered Mizuhara had been lying to them about the situation as well.
The Dodgers fired Mizuhara shortly after.
When Ohtani reached the end of his prepared remarks, which were interpreted by his new translator, Will Ireton, he looked up at the ceiling and seemed to struggle to sum up his emotions. “I am beyond shocked,” he said. “It’s really hard to verbalize how I’m feeling at this point.”
Two of Ohtani’s teammates—Joe Kelly and Enríque Hernandez—attended the press conference.
While Ohtani spoke, many of his teammates warmed up on the field, while others watched his press conference on TVs at the stadium. Yesterday, manager Dave Roberts said he hoped that Ohtani talking to the press would help offer clarity for everyone in the organization.
Dodger players seemed as in the dark as the rest of the sports world regarding what was going on.
After Ohtani’s press conference, one Dodger veteran was overheard explaining to another veteran on the field that Ohtani said he did not know about Mizuhara’s gambling problems before Mizuhara addressed the team in Seoul, and that he did not understand the full extent of what Mizuhara said in the team meeting until later that evening when they returned to the team hotel.
While only a few players crammed into the packed room, all the major front office executives were present in the front, to the left side of the table where Ohtani sat.
I do not know whether Shohei Ohtani is telling the truth, and neither do you. Anybody who claims to know what Ohtani is like, or what he does in his spare time, is lying. The guy refused to even tell the media the name of his dog for a whole month, and had a secret wife no one knew about. He is the ultimate cypher, a perfect specimen for anyone to project their own vibes onto. If you hate the Dodgers and you want to see them burn, then this guy is a degenerate gambler, and nothing he can say or do will change your mind. Ohtani getting cleared by law enforcement and/or MLB might even *further* convince you this is all some huge conspiracy to cover up crimes committed by the sport’s biggest star.
By the same token, his fans may fight to the death on social media defending him, even if his story falls apart. He will probably be subject to betting jeers everywhere he travels this year, because plenty of people consist on diets entirely composed of schadenfreude.
What I will say, however, is that the level of detail Ohtani gave today about Mizuhara lying to him and stealing from him seems like a BOLD (and perhaps unnecessary) tack to take if it’s not true. If Ohtani himself knowingly wired money to a bookie, it seems like that will be a pretty easy thing for Mizuhara’s attorney (assuming he now has one!) to prove. If Mizuhara winds up facing criminal exposure over this (and it’s hard to imagine he won’t!) he will probably also be instructed by said attorney to contradict what Ohtani said today to save himself from prison.
All we know right now is that the best player in a generation is accusing his personal assistant/best friend/interpreter of stealing millions from him to gamble on sports illegally. This is a devastating story for everyone involved, regardless of where the truth lies. The best-case scenario here is that Ohtani was a dummy with money who was shanked in the back by the person he trusted most.
It was good that Ohtani spoke to the media today and said as much as he did. I know some keyboard warriors are irked that he didn’t take questions, and while that’s fair enough, it’s not like he was going to answer anything while both MLB and law enforcement are investigating. Every minimally decent lawyer would advise that Ohtani keep his mouth shut going forward.
Had I been allowed to ask Ohtani a question, here’s what I would have gone with: Did CAA (Ohtani’s agency) have a proper money manager overseeing your finances?
Because wouldn’t someone good at their job notice wire transfers from Ohtani’s accounts to some random dude totaling $4.5 million over a few years and, uh, raised some red flags?
I absolutely believe that plenty of White Lotus-rich athletes do not check their bank statements, both because they are not stressed about money like the rest of us, and because they typically pay people who are good at math to add and subtract and invest their money for them. What wasn’t said in today’s press conference is whether Mizuhara also filled the role of “guy who handles Ohtani’s finances.”
Because if Ohtani’s version of events is to be believed, for all that his agent tried to protect him during the free-agent process by keeping it so confidential, he failed to notice that the biggest threat to Ohtani was the guy standing at his side, three hundred and sixty-five days a year. If I were Ohtani, I would consider cleaning house.
As for whether this mess will impact Ohtani’s production on the field, or fade into the background until a lawyered-up Mizuhara tells his side, stay tuned.
I believe the guy. He needs to fire his agent and get a money management team asap.
I hope his version is true, for the sake of baseball. As a Padre fan, I wouldn't be sad if this negatively affected his performance a bit.