ORLANDO, Fla. – Just weeks following the arrest of a Miami Heat player in Orlando over allegations of orchestrating a sports betting scam, a fresh controversy has led sportsbooks nationwide, including Hard Rock Bet, to reevaluate their systems and apps.
[VIDEO: Miami Heat player Terry Rozier arrested in Orlando as over 30 nabbed in gambling schemes]
On Sunday, two pitchers from the Cleveland Guardians, Emmanual Clase and Luis Ortiz, faced indictments. Federal prosecutors accused them of delivering non-competitive pitches that enabled gamblers to rake in nearly $500,000 through prop bets.
Prop bets involve placing wagers on specific game elements, such as the number of rebounds a basketball player might secure, the yards a football receiver might gain, or the hits a baseball player might achieve.
[VIDEO: Pitchers Clase, Ortiz cited in sporting gambling indictment]
However, the landscape of sports betting is shifting with the emergence of “micro-bets.” These bets are even more granular than prop bets, allowing wagers on tiny game details, down to individual pitches in baseball.
It’s something that even caught the eye of Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“Prop betting creates a lot of temptation for players to have a side hustle while not having to throw an entire game,” the Governor wrote on social media. “It was clear that the NBA was not alone. Bad incentives.”
Monday, on the heels of the indictments against Clase and Ortiz, Major League Baseball announced new limits on “micro betting.”
Effective immediately, wagers on individual pitches will be capped at $200, and the bets cannot be used in parlays. The league says the measure will significantly mitigate risk on pitch-level markets, which have heightened integrity risks because they focus on one-off events that can be determined by a single player, while still being inconsequential to the outcome of the game.
News 6 reached out to Hard Rock Bet to see if their mobile platform will reflect those changes.
“This initiative reflects a shared industry commitment to regulation, licensing, consumer protection, integrity and responsibility,” a spokesperson for the company said. “Working in partnership with Major League Baseball, we’re committed to strengthening the regulated framework that ensures safe, transparent, and trustworthy sports betting experiences.”
There have been calls by some governors to outlaw prop betting as a whole. News 6 reached out to the governor’s office to learn if that’s something being explored in Florida. At this point we have not yet heard back.
Prop bets are allowed in Florida on everything except for college sports, as part of the 2021 gaming compact between the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the State.
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