iGaming Daily

Jessica Welman (00:01.845)
Pete Rose is on the brain this week thanks to news that the MLB has banned a player for life for his choice to bet on baseball. Tukapita Marcano joins John T. Porter as the latest cautionary tale for athletes in the post -Paspa age. We're going to break down what he bet on and how he got caught, provide a quick update on the Porter situation, and discuss rumors about which sportsbook might be swooping in and trying to make a deal with Diamond Sports on today's episode of iGaming Daily.

iGaming Daily is presented by OptiMove, the number one CRM marketing solution for the iGaming market. 56 % of the EGR Power 50 personalized player experiences with OptiMove. And you can join that illustrious group. That offer for a first free month from OptiMove is still on the table. Use the link in the description below, optimove .com forward slash SBC. I'm Jessica Wellman, editor of SBC America, joined by media manager, Charlie Horner. And Charlie, we've done these kind of...

digital content days in the past, do you enjoy, like have any of them stuck out to you as ones that you've really gotten a lot out of?

Charlie (01:07.95)
Yeah, I mean they're really educational days, they're really good sessions put together. The two that stick out in my mind are the affiliation one and the sports book text.

Jessica Welman (01:18.997)
We had a player protection one I really liked as well. So we've got another one of those coming up. SBC Digital Innovation Payment Expert. This is sponsored by PXP Financial, Gamble ID and Approvely. It's taking place next Wednesday, June 12th. The sessions are going to focus on open banking, crypto regulation, compliance, digital ID and payments. And it's going to have speakers from the sponsors, including the likes of Kindred, Leo Vegas, Qwiff, the Payments Associations, all the big hitters and more.

So guys, be sure to register so you don't miss out on that. All right, with that out of the way, Charlie, you know what's coming up. Here is the question of the week for the British person. How familiar are you with baseball, and in particular, are you familiar with the name Pete Rose?

Charlie (01:56.783)
Drum roll everyone.

Charlie (02:09.359)
So yeah, I mean, aside from that feature I wrote last year about the rule changes with MLB, not too much. I don't think it's really cut through as much in the UK as, say, NFL is at the moment, because we're all too busy watching cricket instead, which is a more exciting bat and ball game. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jessica Welman (02:29.653)
Limit one bat sport per person.

Yeah, so Pete Rose though, that means nothing to you then.

Charlie (02:40.238)
No

Jessica Welman (02:41.685)
So Pete Rose was, you know, when I was, I was probably five, six years old, when he was caught betting on baseball and banned for life, disgrace of the game. One of these guys that should be in the Hall of Fame, but because he bet on baseball, no one's gonna put him in the Hall of Fame kind of thing. And now we kind of have our modern day Pete Rose. Tukapito Marcano is a player on the Pittsburgh Pirates who,

was found to have been betting on baseball and in particular actually bet on the pirates in certain games while he was on injured reserve. So he wasn't in the lineup but he was betting on his team and for that reason he has been banned for life from playing in the league again.

Charlie (03:29.647)
It's a huge story this. We've had numerous of these over the last 12 months across different US sports and actually in some European sports as well. But this is probably the most harsh punishment. I mean, banning someone for life is a real... Yeah, it's a huge moment because MLB is...

really put its foot down and said this cannot happen.

Jessica Welman (04:01.237)
And then you've got the whole Otani thing, right? With his interpreter, I guess not Otani, but the interpreter I believe is pled guilty in court or is about to plead guilty in court for his involvement in an illegal casino or illegal sports book. These were done through a licensed operator. According to the reports, he placed 231 different wagers on Major League Baseball.

He's also not the only one that kind of got caught in this situation. One year suspensions to four other players, Michael Kelly, Jay Groom, Jose Rodriguez, and Andrew Saul Frank. I'll be honest, I follow the Reds notionally. I don't really follow baseball that well. Senior writer for SBC America's Justin Byers follows the sport a lot more. And I was like, are any of these people famous? And he was just like, you know, Marcano is probably the biggest name.

And it seems like the difference between his lifetime ban and their ban is that they all bet on minor league baseball teams that they weren't affiliated with, whereas he bet on his own team, which given the Pete Rose thing, I guess, makes it a bridge too far.

Charlie (05:18.511)
Yeah, that's a nice explanation of why Marcano's ban is bigger than everybody else's. I think it might be useful, Jess, just to outline what the MLB's rules with regards to gambling are. Are they clear or are they a little bit more like the NFL rules that we spoke about last year?

Jessica Welman (05:38.773)
Yeah, remember how confusing the NFL ones are? It's like, well, if you're in the parking lot, you can't, but if you're across the street, you can. No, MLBs are extremely straightforward. You cannot bet on baseball. You cannot bet on the minor leagues, the league that you're in. You cannot bet on Olympic baseball or baseball leagues in Asia. There's no betting on any form of baseball, which...

is a pretty easy way to explain, right? It took me what, eight seconds?

Charlie (06:11.792)
Yeah, it's really clear, really easy to follow, well, for most. And it's reminiscent of football over here, or soccer. You can't bet on football, soccer, anywhere in the world if you're a player, because it's easy to follow. You know, there's no, none of this NFL confusing rules. It's...

Jessica Welman (06:35.221)
Like you can bet on college football, but you can't bet on pro football. Yeah, it's not complicated.

Charlie (06:38.735)
Yeah, yeah, and I think it's, it just, you're gonna run into fewer issues like this if you have blanket rules or blanket bans. And then if people do flout those rules, you can come down really hard on them as the MLB have done here.

Jessica Welman (06:56.757)
Yeah, I mean, I have had conversations with people who have told me so many people of these athletes in the league are from Latin America where the attitude around betting is a lot different and a lot more kind of laid back. And so there is some culture shock coming into the league. And I can understand this, but given all of the news, given that Pete Rose here,

I mean, I didn't follow baseball at all as a child and I knew who Pete Rose was pretty early in life. Like, it's surprising that this is happening, at least in my mind. It's interesting to note they got caught because they were betting on regulated sports books. I had a bit of an exchange on Twitter where Captain Jack was like, it's shady to me that

For five years we didn't have a problem and suddenly we do have problems.

Charlie (07:56.784)
Yeah, I was just about to ask this, do you think it's a condemnation of regulated sports betting that we're seeing these problems arise or is it that it's really good because the industry is picking up on these things and they are reporting that there are irregularities happening and maybe this was happening before and it just wasn't being reported because they were illegal offshore operators.

Jessica Welman (08:23.893)
I mean, I think that's a lot of it. I think that these guys were maybe doing it casually with each other. They were doing it with a local bookie or potentially an offshore operator. I also think, you know, to Jack's point, like, why hasn't this been caught before? We finally have seen kind of the technology turn on this. I think, you know, you were still at SBC America when we were writing these Prohibit releases, seemingly once a week.

Charlie (08:51.183)
Mm -hmm.

Jessica Welman (08:53.205)
This product kind of solved a problem that was in all of these states have these regs that as athletes you're not allowed to bet on your own league and that sort of thing. And then the leagues have their own rules on top of them. But actually executing that where sports books can identify the athletes and conclude what's happening. Nobody wants to like give over.

Joe Burroughs social security number to a random sports book in Ohio. Because Prohibit allows this information to be encrypted and be a little more secure, I think operators and more importantly leagues started to feel a lot more comfortable with the sharing of this information that wasn't happening before, which is why I think you're seeing kind of a backlog of things happening that we weren't seeing in the first five years.

But I think you're right. It does seem like this is a sign that the regulated market is working, even though this is happening.

Charlie (09:52.464)
Mm -hmm. Yeah, for sure.

Yeah, it's never great that it happens in the first place, but it's good to know that we do have those tools and protections in place that we can stop it from happening because ultimately, whether you're betting on minor league baseball or betting on your own team, it's still breaking the rules. It still brings the game into disrepute. So what do we think about the ban in general? Is a lifetime ban a bit harsh?

Should it be a couple of seasons? What do we think?

Jessica Welman (10:26.709)
I mean, this is, I'm gonna sound like such an old person right now, but when people are like, he's 24, you know, he's so young and he doesn't know, like, are you 24 or 25? Yeah, like, I would think, as someone who was your boss before, if I was like, Charlie, you're not allowed to go right for somebody else on the side. And then you did. I wouldn't be like, he's 24.

Charlie (10:39.568)
I'm 24, yeah.

Jessica Welman (10:55.445)
Like it's a very simple instruction and you didn't follow it. So I think at 24, even though you may be from a different country or you may be in a new place, you may be, I don't know with this particular player dealing with language barriers, this seems simple enough that I just have a hard time. Like, yeah, you can't do this. And if we don't, you know, I will say they're probably making an example of him.

more than they necessarily would have, but like that's what you have to do with the first one to make sure it doesn't keep happening.

Charlie (11:29.841)
Yeah, I would agree that it's probably a making an example out of him and sending out a warning to any of the sort of rookie players coming through saying, you know, this is what could happen if you follow in his footsteps. I agree with you with the point about him being maybe young or inexperienced. At the end of the day, it's very clear it's not like the NFL, as we've said, the rules are clear. You can't bet on baseball. He

bet on baseball. But taking away his career, livelihood, okay, sure, he's not got a divine right to be a professional baseball player, but I can see where some people might argue that you're taking away this guy's career away from him because of some mistakes, albeit he bet, was it over 200 times? So.

Jessica Welman (12:23.061)
gonna say he made the same mistake 231 times. This isn't an oopsie, you know? Like, you messed up over 200 times.

Charlie (12:28.017)
Yeah, there's a point where...

Charlie (12:36.912)
Yeah, yeah, I think that's probably an aggravating factor rather than a mitigation. So, yeah, I would imagine that anyone who was thinking of flouting those rules might think again.

Jessica Welman (12:51.317)
Yeah, I would think so too. You know, it's... Here's what I will say too. Like, I'm gonna be cynical for a second. So on the Reds, there's this really exciting young player named Ellie De La Cruz who is a superstar. Everybody has agreed this young guy is just an absolute stud.

Do I think if this was Ellie De La Cruz, we would be looking at a different kind of punishment? Entirely possible. As I mentioned, Justin told me none of these guys, they're all kind of people that are on the cusp of being in the major leagues. You don't follow baseball, but you kind of...

get called up from the minor league team associated with your team to play in the major league one and these guys are right on the edge of flip -flopping back and forth between the majors and the minors. He's not a superstar. I do think if it was a superstar like an Ellie De La Cruz maybe we're talking two years or something like that because baseball is struggling to relate and resonate with the young people in the United States. So...

Yeah, I'm a little bit cynical there. That's my only side note on it.

Charlie (14:14.482)
Even still, even if it was reduced to just two years, it does seem a long time to ban somebody. I can only draw upon the examples from European football. We had Ivan Thoney, the Brentford striker who was caught flouting the FA's betting rules. He got, I think, I believe it was nine months that he couldn't play. That's probably the most serious case.

or a player about seven years ago got an 18 month ban. But we've not seen too many of these two year plus bans and certainly not banned for life.

Jessica Welman (14:55.061)
Yeah, we have a little bit of an update on the other one, the other band for Life Story, Jontay Porter. There was an arrest made in connection with this, this week. A man named Longfee Fam is apparently a bookie that Porter was betting illegally with and had racked up quite a bit of a mark, of a tab with.

And so this whole scheme to sit out games and stuff was done to basically erase his debt with this guy. The man was apprehended at the airport, Tom Nightingale and I were talking about this, with a one -way ticket to Australia. Which is just the most cliche thing. Like, I'm just gonna run away to a, it doesn't scream innocent.

Charlie (15:42.193)
Jessica Welman (15:49.685)
when someone is flying one way to Australia, I think.

Charlie (15:52.723)
Absolutely not, and this story does sound a lot murkier than the MLB story.

Jessica Welman (15:59.125)
I mean, this one, I think if you are throwing the game you are in, that you probably deserve to be banned for life as well. This is a lot more, I think, deserved of a ban that nobody's questioning it. Let's put it that way. So yeah, he has been apprehended. Funny thing, in this report, they claim he is like a top 1 %...

poker player in the world. And I had to take to Twitter and be like, poker people, who is this person? And they immediately chimed back to be like, hey, this guy was like accused of cheating in a private home game. Like rigging the home game so that he had an advantage and was allegedly cheating people out of millions. And that's what he's known for. So then like these random, I haven't, you know.

Charlie (16:40.786)
Jessica Welman (16:51.477)
I dip in and out of poker, but this guy who goes by Bruce, you know, a couple of people were tweeting back at me, including one who's like, he cheated me out of $4 million. Yeah.

Charlie (17:04.754)
Whoa. Wow, this is a... This story gets deeper and deeper.

Jessica Welman (17:10.613)
Yeah, cheaters gonna like, cheaters gonna cheat, you know? So undeterred, congratulations Australia, you don't have to worry about the safety of your poker home games a little bit for the next coming months, I suppose. So he has been arraigned and we'll see what happens there. Interesting that this took place in the offshore, you know, illegal space and then,

Bruce Pham was like making these bets at a regulated sports book. I wonder if he just couldn't get money down with anybody else because everybody knew he was shady and wouldn't take the bet.

Charlie (17:51.571)
Maybe, yeah, but again, it's just a very quick way to get caught if you're this sort of gambling mastermind. Yeah, absolutely.

Jessica Welman (17:56.341)
Yeah, it is kind of like world's dumbest criminals, right?

Aneya, I'm going to mess things up for you and I hope this is okay. We are at 18 minutes now and haven't gotten to the second thing. So can I just do a quick conclusion and then rerecord the intro without the last sentence? Perfect.

Jessica Welman (18:23.733)
All right, Charlie, you noted it has been a busy week. I have done, I feel like I do nothing but read court documents. So, Bet MTM going before the Michigan Supreme Court on this case where a woman claims that she won $3 .2 million on the site and then they claimed that she didn't because there was an error. So that case getting heard in the state's highest court. In Georgia, we have a class action.

against the group that runs Chumba Casino, Lucky Land, and the most popular Sweep Sites. I believe we're gonna be talking about that on tomorrow's podcast. My favorite, Mike Hermelin, took a lot of pot shots at good old DraftKings CEO, Jason Robbins, in his latest court filings, so that was nice and juicy. And then we also have a great, not juicy, but very interesting,

Interview from the National Council Problem Gambling's Keith White. Steve Hoare, who runs our player protection hub, spoke with him about the GRIT Act. So that's all that's going on on SBC Americas this week. By the time we publish this, I'm sure there will be some other jaw -dropping news. Anything interesting to check out on your end?

Charlie (19:37.044)
Yeah, I've been speaking to the guys at Alt Sports Data recently and they're really, really fun guys and they are really making a push to increase the visibility of sort of action sports in betting because in their minds, it hasn't been, they haven't been picked up as much by the big sports books and those guys are helping to increase that visibility. So there's a couple of features that will be,

Jessica Welman (19:41.685)
I like them. They're fun.

Charlie (20:07.251)
be up by the time that listeners are listening to this so yeah go and go and check that out.

Jessica Welman (20:14.837)
Awesome. All right, check out SBC Americas, all the other sites in the SBC network, and of course, keep tuning in for all the latest news and headlines each and every day on iGaming Daily.

Jessica Welman (20:30.613)
And then I just need to redo this intro with one piece removed.

Jessica Welman (20:40.789)
Is it going to count down again? no, it's still rolling. Perfect. Okay. Pete Rose is on the brain this week thanks to news that the MLB has banned a player for life because he was betting on baseball. Tuca Pita -Marcano joins Jontay Porter as the latest cautionary tale for athletes in the post -Paspa age. We're going to break down what he bet on and how he got caught, as well as provide a quick update on the Porter situation on today's episode of iGaming Daily.