Speaker 1Hi, everyone. This is Preeti Varathan from 30 for 30 Podcasts. You're about to listen to season 17 of our show, The Betrayal of Shohei Otani. This season, we're taking you inside one of the most explosive stories in modern-day sports from the reporter who uncovered it. Shohei and Ipe were one of the most famous bromances in professional sports. They were seen together nearly all the time. They were labeled best friends, even said to be like brothers, until it all fell apart because of 19,000 bets and the wild world of sports gambling. It's a story you might have heard about, but as it turns out, what was reported in the news is just the beginning. Today, we're bringing you episodes one and two of this six-episode season, and we'll be back every Tuesday and Thursday with the remaining episodes. So stay tuned, and as always, thank you for listening.
Speaker 2It's November 2024, and
Speaker 3the Los Angeles Dodgers are in their home stadium celebrating their World Series win. The players line up on the podium. Team manager Dave Roberts takes the mic and introduces some of the stars.
Speaker 2Let's hear it. Friday, Friday, Friday, Friday.
Speaker 3And then he calls out the name everyone's waiting for.
Speaker 2Who wants to
Speaker 3hear from Shohei Otani? Shohei Otani just finished his first season with the Dodgers. He's a head taller than a lot of his teammates, and he's wearing a t-shirt and backwards ball cap when he gives a shy grin as he takes the mic.
Speaker 4This is one of the first times that
Speaker 3Shohei has spoken publicly in English without an interpreter.
Speaker 4Shohei Otani: I'm here to be part of his team. Congratulations, Los Angeles. Thank you, fans.
Speaker 3That's all he says, and the crowd absolutely loves it. By any measure, Shohei's first season with the Dodgers was extraordinary. Here's a 2-1.
Speaker 2There's a drive! It's a point! Shohei Otani arrives in October. With a three-run home run. Shohei Otani sends one in the air. Back it goes. Gone! One-of-a-kind player. One-of-a-kind season. Shohei Otani starts the 50-50 club.
Speaker 3Many believe he could become the best baseball player of all time. It's really not hyperbole, guys. They say that Shohei Otani
Speaker 5is the new Babe Ruth.
Speaker 2Shohei Otani: Otani! Right field! Forget about it! A massive shot!
Speaker 3Wow! It's the kind of success that helps overshadow what happened just months before, at the start of this season, when Shohei was caught up in a scandal that could have ended it all. We're going to turn to the scandal of Rocky Major League Baseball. Shohei Otani is set to address the media today. This scandal has the potential to be one of the biggest sports scandals that we've ever seen. Certainly one of the biggest baseball scandals that we've ever seen. Our team at ESPN broke the story. It tied the money of one of the highest-paid players in baseball history to a vast illegal sports betting operation. But when it was over, he would walk away, and someone else, someone close to him, would confess to a shocking crime, disappearing. Shohei Otani! And in this moment, at the World Series celebration, you could almost forget it ever happened.
Speaker 4Thank you, fans! But two years
Speaker 3later, I still have so many questions. So I'm going to travel the country, chase down leads, and try to understand how one of sports' most complicated friendships detonated into one of the biggest scandals in baseball history.
Speaker 6Here's the pitch to Otani. Possibly the greatest player that's ever played the game. Generational talent. Federal investigation. Quest about wire transfers. Four and a half million dollars. To a Southern California bookmaker. And he has no idea of it.
Speaker 3I'm ESPN investigative reporter Tisha Thompson. From 30 for 30 Podcasts, this is The Betrayal of Shohei Otani. Episode 1: The Letter O.
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Speaker 3year before Shohei won that World Series, when a source sent me a tip. At first, the tip seemed to have nothing to do with baseball or any sport. It was information from a federal court document. Still under seal. A list of items that had been seized from a house in California. It included the kinds of things you might expect from a federal raid. Computers, hard drives, and cell phones. But there were also $40,000 Breitling watches, handbags from Chanel, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, and casino chips. Lots and lots of casino chips. Why were the feds interested? Because all of these things were taken from a house owned by a man named Matt Boyer. The feds also seized a cash counting machine, sports betting records, and receipts for offshore bank wires. And that's when I say to myself, I think Matt Boyer is a bookie. A person who takes bets, pays them out when they win, and collects when they lose. But the source confirms it. Matt Boyer is a bookie. But he isn't just any bookie. According to my source, his clients include celebrities, millionaires, and seemingly one of the most famous athletes in the world. When my source tells me the name of that athlete, it's a name so big, so shocking, that all I write down is the letter O.
Speaker 8You tell me the name of the athlete involved, and that the source is a bookie. That the feds are involved in an investigation, and that is why we have to be so careful. This is my editor, Elaine Tang. We're really worried about putting a rumor out there that then comes back to us as fact. We have to be really careful about going out and saying, "Hey, is Shohei Ohtani gambling with a bookie?"
Speaker 3This tip was so potentially damning, we needed to tread really carefully. Because it could turn into a very grown-up version of that kid's game, telephone, where someone whispers something to someone, and then they whisper it to someone else, and by the time it comes back to you, it's totally different from what you said. I couldn't just ask sources questions like, "Hey, does Shohei gamble?" Even if the answer was no, they might tell someone else in the clubhouse that ESPN was asking if Shohei gambled. And then that person says to someone else, "Hey, I heard Shohei gambles." By the time I call several someones later, that person then says to me, "Oh yeah, I have heard he gambles." All I have done is confirm a rumor that I heard Shohei gamble. I started. A rumor about Shohei Ohtani paying millions of dollars to an illegal bookie.
Speaker 8I think it was the amount of money involved as well as the caliber of the athlete that feels really loaded and, you know, extremely damaging, if true, right? To the athlete, their reputation, their career.
Speaker 3It's a very serious allegation. I want to learn everything I can about what someone could get themselves into betting with a bookie. So I head to the sports betting epicenter of the country. We are in Las Vegas, baby. I'm in Las Vegas to meet with the reporter I think knows more about bookies and sports betting than anyone else in the business.
Speaker 9Who do you think the biggest moneymaker is for the casino? Penny Slott. That's correct. Am I right?
Speaker 3That's correct. This is ESPN's David Purdom. I met him in a casino just off the Vegas Strip. We sit down in a room near the sportsbook. Watching as people place bets. Do they put the sportsbook in the back on purpose? I
Speaker 9wanted to talk to Purdom
Speaker 3about the tip I received because he has a massive Rolodex of sources in the sports betting world. Had you ever heard of Matt Boyer before?
Speaker 9No, I had not. Never heard of him.
Speaker 3We gave you Matt Boyer's name and you called sources. You do the David Purdom magic and disappear for 12 hours and came back with info.
Speaker 9I usually go to, you start with your guys that you know have had this. And when they didn't know, I had to expand. And I did and found some people that knew of him. And then when we found out that he was coming to Vegas, I talked to people here and they knew of him.
Speaker 3A source warned Purdom that Boyer was connected to a man with a dangerous reputation, a guy named Owen Hansen, a former USC football player who became known as the Cocaine QB. When I got the original tip, Hansen was in prison for bookmaking and drug trafficking and was rumored to have ties to the cartel.
Speaker 9We had a source who was involved with running money for that group. And he was telling us, be careful, right? Because Owen Hansen was not known as a good person. He was known as a violent person around the betting community. And when there was ties to Boyer, there was concern.
Speaker 3Over the next few weeks, we gathered more sources and confirmed Boyer was running a huge sportsbook operation in Southern California. Is California more prolific with bookies than other parts of the world?
Speaker 9Massive, massive bookmaking operations in California. Why? Because there's no legal sports bet.
Speaker 3Sports betting is now legal in 39 states, plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. Depending on where you live, you can place bets through a state. You can place a state-licensed app, a website, or in a casino or a bar in those states. But unless you're betting on a horse race, sports betting in California is illegal. There is no legal way to place a sports bet there. Not on DraftKings, not on FanDuel, not in the tribal casinos. So if you live in California and you want to bet on sports, you either have to go somewhere like Vegas or find a bookie. Which is, of course, illegal. But there are many reasons why someone might want to use a bookie, even if the state they live in has legal sports betting. Purdom says a big reason is credit.
Speaker 9People want to bet on credit. You don't want to give over your cash. If you can bet on credit, huge advantage. I can just place my bet for $100 and my money never changes hands. You go down $1,000, the guy says, OK, let's meet up at the Waffle House. And you go there and you pass over an envelope and that's how it's done.
Speaker 3Another reason is that sports betting is illegal. Another reason someone might seek out a bookie is anonymity.
Speaker 9If you are an athlete betting with the DraftKings, there's a chance that we could find it. But if you could be betting with this illegal sports book over here, I would not be able to know it.
Speaker 3So Purdom says a celebrity who wants to bet discreetly might use a bookie. When I told him that Shohei Ohtani was the athlete my source told me might be involved with Matt Boyer. I was stunned.
Speaker 9I remember when you relayed the message to me who the athlete was. I was like, oh, my gosh, I believe I cursed.
Speaker 3Why is sports betting such a sensitive topic for Major League Baseball?
Speaker 9Well, you start with the Black Sox way back at the beginning of the century. The Chicago White Sox, several players of them got engaged with some criminals, and they allegedly agreed to throw a World Series.
Speaker 3Major League Baseball banned eight players from the Chicago White Sox for life. And after that scandal, the league created a set of rules about betting on sports. It forbids players, coaches and staff from using a bookie. And you may never bet on baseball.
Speaker 9So that was the big one. The next time you get some sort of betting scandal, it's Pete Rose. Number 4192. Pete Rose makes Pete Rose the all-time Major League Baseball hit leader. All-time hits leader. He eventually admitted to betting on the game of baseball. I was wrong. I'm just stupid. Worst thing I ever did in my life.
Speaker 3In 1989, MLB punished Pete Rose with a lifetime ban for betting on baseball. Pete Rose was one of the greatest ballplayers of his generation. He holds records that have never been broken. But all of his feats on the field have been overshadowed by what he did off the field. Could Shohei Ohtani, the greatest player of his generation, be the next Pete Rose?
Speaker 9If they were to have found out that he was betting on baseball, he would have been banned for life. And this is your biggest star, banned for life.
Speaker 3Part of what made the allegation so shocking was how Shohei Ohtani had a reputation for being squeaky clean. Before this, there's no way he would have been banned for life. There's never been a whisper of a scandal attached to his name, which makes it all the more surprising to hear allegations that he might be tied to a bookie with dangerous connections. But we realized we don't actually know all that much about Shohei's life outside of baseball.
Speaker 5He is the most guarded and protected athlete that I think I've ever been around.
Speaker 3This is ESPN's Tim Kuhn. Tim specializes in writing proverbs. Profiles of the most famous and oftentimes controversial names in sports. People like Barry Bonds, Aaron Rodgers, Floyd Mayweather Jr. Tim says he's been trying to decipher the enigma that is Shohei Ohtani ever since he first arrived here in the United States.
Speaker 5When he came here, I first started observing him, knowing that I was going to have to observe him to write about him rather than talk to him because it was established early on that it was a dead end. Tim says most of what you know about Shohei is limited to what
Speaker 3Shohei is willing to tell you, and it rarely leaves the realm of the ballpark. And when it does, it's on Shohei's terms. Like when he got married, people didn't even know Shohei was in a relationship until he posted about his wife on Instagram.
Speaker 10He has lots of titles, MVP, gazillionaire, superstar, but the husband had eluded him until now, and he made the announcement where else but on social media that reads, not only have I begun a new chapter in my career with the Dodgers, but I also have begun a new life with someone from my native country of Japan who is very special to me, and I wanted everyone to know I am now married.
Speaker 3Shohei's teammates, and even Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, didn't know about it.
Speaker 4I felt like it was a good timing
Speaker 11because it's before the season. I didn't want really any distractions once the season started.
Speaker 5I think there is this, the sort of the aura, right? Like just leave him alone to do what he does because the distractions are not something he's interested in. He's not interested in talking to me, to be honest. He does it as an obligation. After he pitches, if he hits two home runs in a game, he'll stand there and answer questions in the most anodyne way possible.
Speaker 12Are you nervous at all playing in the postseason for the first time?
Speaker 3Nope. But the league, the teams, and the fans don't seem to mind not knowing much about Shohei's life off the field because what's happening on the field is record-breaking.
Speaker 5He's really challenged our idea of limits because he has shown his talent to be limitless. He does the two things that excite baseball people more than anything else. He can throw a baseball over 100 miles an hour and he can hit a ball 500 feet. It's like the two headline acts of baseball. He is among the best in the world at both, if not the best. There goes Otani. It's a lead-off home run after he struck out three in the top. He is a dream for Major League Baseball.
Speaker 3And the Dodgers rewarded him in the fall of 2023 with a record-breaking contract. It is the announcement that took the baseball world by storm today. $700 million over 10 years.
Speaker 2Oh my goodness!
Speaker 3Come on! One of the league's premier franchises made a historic bet on Shohei because they knew his success would be their success. They stood to make a lot of money, too. Ticket sales, merchandise, partnerships. Shohei's success could pay off big time for the Dodgers and MLB. Shohei himself makes more than $125 million in endorsements a year, with much of that money coming from advertisements in Japan.
Speaker 5When I was there, I was shocked by you could literally not walk more than two blocks in Tokyo without seeing his face on something, whether it was a green tea or, of water, sports drink, or Hugo Boss, or something. I mean, everywhere is Otani.
Speaker 7After touching down in Tokyo, it's easy to see Otani mania is really a thing.
Speaker 10Everyone in Japan is, by default, a Shohei fan.
Speaker 5The appetite for Otani, the love for Otani, appears to be as limitless as his talent.
Speaker 3If Shohei's reputation takes a hit, it wouldn't just tarnish his name. It would have devastating consequences for the Dodgers, for Major League Baseball, and for Japan. When you were first told that Otani might be involved in some kind of betting scandal, what was your initial reaction?
Speaker 5Shock. Shock combined with sort of a reassessment of everything I had seen leading up to that, plus another layer of, like, who knows?
Speaker 3I'd been investigating this tip for two months when, in January 2024, a source tells me to look at a different player who may be a critical link. David Fletcher was an infielder for the Los Angeles Angels. He and Shohei played together for six seasons, and Tim tells me it was widely known that they were friends.
Speaker 5They played bumper pool together, and they played Clash of Clans, and it was just this sort of, you know, buddy comedy, this little. white guy and this big Japanese guy buddying around.
Speaker 3Fletcher's social media shows he is an avid poker player.
Speaker 5I don't think he broadcasts it, but I don't think he hit it.
Speaker 3And his love of poker would end up being vital to our investigation. When I call him in January, Fletcher admits to me he knows Matt Boyer. They had golfed together, but he wouldn't call them friends. Fletcher tells me he heard that Boyer might be a bookie, but he insists he's never. bet with Boyer. Worried about spreading a rumor, I don't ask if Boyer is Shohei's bookie. I don't ask anything about Shohei. By this point, I've developed more sources, and I learn there is a paper trail that connects Shohei Otani to Matt Boyer. And I've tracked down a source who has that proof. But they're nervous, and it takes weeks before the source agrees to show it to me, and they're not going to make it. It's not easy. It's the middle of the night. I'm driving to meet my contact. I find them standing outside of a car in a parking lot waiting for me. I drop into the passenger seat. The contact hands me a cell phone and tells me the proof I want will appear on an encrypted app, and each image will disappear in 30 seconds. I can't take pictures, but I can take notes. I pull out my notebook, and I tell my contact, I'm ready. A document appears on the screen. September 14th, 2023, $500,000. I spot the word "loan" and scribble it down in my notebook, but I don't have time to ask questions because the second document appears. October 2nd, 2023, $500,000. Both documents include the same long list of numbers on the screen. Later, after I drive away, I will stare at the jumble of letters and numbers I scribbled into my notebook, and I'll realize it's routing information. I just saw wire transfers from a bank account at Bank of America, and there's a name attached to the account: Shohei Ohtani. According to the screenshots I just saw, Shohei Ohtani's bank account sent wire transfers to Matt Boyer's illegal bookmaking operation. I saw two of them totaling a million dollars. I've got it. The direct link between Shohei and the bookie's operation. But before I can even begin to wrap my head around what I've seen, a source reaches out with new information and a new name.
Speaker 2Interpreter Ipe Mizuhara.
Speaker 3Ipe Mizuhara, Shohei's interpreter for the past six years. The source tells me Ipe is prepared to say he was the one gambling, and that Shohei was paying his debts.
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Speaker 3If there's someone we know even less about than Shohei Ohtani, it's Ipe Mizuhara, Shohei's interpreter. His biography provided by the Los Angeles Angels says Ipe was born in Japan, but grew up in Japan. Before he joined the Angels, Ipe worked in Japan for the Nippon Ham Fighters baseball team as an interpreter for American players. And that's where he met Shohei. And when Shohei signed with the Angels in December of 2017, he brought Ipe along with him as his interpreter.
Speaker 11I want to talk about not why I joined the Angels, but I want you guys to see me trying to adjust with the team throughout the spring training. And maybe then I think you guys will find out why I chose the Angels. That was the right choice.
Speaker 3Ever since they arrived in the States, Shohei and Ipe are always together, with Ipe seemingly just a few steps behind Shohei at all times. And Ipe does a lot more than just translate. Ipe carries Shohei's gear. When Shohei needs a ride, Ipe drives him. When Shohei warms up for a game, he doesn't use a pitching coach, he throws to Ipe. When Shohei competed in the 2021 MLB Home Run Derby, he chose Ipe, and Ipe was the first to be his catcher. What a fun moment that's going to be for him. And hopefully he's not having to catch too much. They walk red carpets together. Teammates and others have even wondered if the two men live together, but they've never confirmed it. Your day in the life with Shohei, I mean, what do you guys do throughout the day before you even get here to the ballpark?
Speaker 11We eat breakfast every day at the hotel, on the road, if not at home.
Speaker 5Then that's pretty much it. It got to the point where, you know, I wondered, how could you spend that much time with one person?
Speaker 3When my colleague Tim Kuhn began to watch Shohei and Ipe off the field, it was clear to him that Ipe was different from other interpreters.
Speaker 5To call him an interpreter is almost laughable, because that was almost the least important part of his job. And the routine was always the same, where Shohei would walk out onto the field and Ipe was like, two and a half to three steps behind. It almost felt like a choreographed thing, the way they went about it. The only time that Shohei seemed to be by himself, at least at the baseball field, was when he was in the batter's box or on the mound.
Speaker 3They appeared to be extremely close.
Speaker 5There was no Ipe without Shohei. It manifested itself in me by going to players and saying, "Does it ever occur to you that these guys get sick of each other?" The source told
Speaker 3me they thought Ipe might be taking the fall for Shohei, but I didn't know what to think.
Speaker 5The walls were so thick and so impenetrable that, I mean, anything seemed possible, right?
Speaker 8We didn't quite know what to make of the Ipe connection.
Speaker 3My editor Elaine and I spent weeks investigating the possibilities.
Speaker 8Whether it was him himself, whether he was a cover for Otani, whether he was making the bets on Otani's behalf, we didn't know if it was a. cover-up. We didn't know the truth.
Speaker 3But there are two people who we thought would know the truth: Shohei Otani and Ipe Mizuhara. By March 2024, I've been working on this for five months, and we've collected enough information to go to Shohei's agent. In an email, I tell him, "I have sources who have told us about Shohei Otani's involvement with Mad Boyer. I purposefully don't tell him that I know Mad Boyer is a bookie, or that I've heard Ipe's name. I want to see what their response will be." Two hours later, I get a call from a publicist named Matt Hiltzik. He tells me he specializes in what's called "crisis communication," and Shohei's agent has just brought him on to represent Shohei. Some of Hiltzik's clients don't even know him. They don't even know him. Some of his clients have included Hillary Clinton and Ivanka Trump, Brad Pitt, Alec Baldwin, and Johnny Depp. When I tell him about the wire transfers that I saw, Hiltzik says he needs to call me back. As I wait, I wonder, will they try to deny it? Will they threaten us with defamation? Or will they admit it? My phone rings again a few hours later. Hiltzik says, you're going to get a really good fucking story. You're going to get the truth about what happened. And then he confirms it. It's true. Shohei's bank account wired millions of dollars to Boyer's operation. But he tells me someone else did the bets. Shohei was covering for someone else, he says, someone important to his life. I tell him, I have sources that tell me it's Ipe. He says, you have good sources. I tell him, I want to interview Shohei Otani. He says, maybe. Maybe. I have to see. But I can give you someone else.
Speaker 11I'm Ipe Mizuhara, and you do have permission to record me.
Speaker 3That's next on The Betrayal of Shohei Otani. The Betrayal of Shohei Otani is based on reporting by me, Tisha Thompson, with support from Tim Kuhn and the ESPN investigative unit. Our producer is Carrie Ann Thomas. Our senior producer is Max Green. Our senior editorial producer is Preeti Varathan. Our associate producer is Gus Navarro. Story editing by Audrey Quinn, Alain Tang, Eric Neal, and Mike Drago. Additional editing by Rebecca Hudson. Our archival producer is Jennifer Wheelock. Our line producer is Catherine Sankey. Production managers are Jason Schwartz and Sheena Williams. Fact-checking by John Masterberodino with David Sabino. Additional editorial review from Masa Niwa. Original music by Allison Leighton-Brown and John DeLore. Sound design by John DeLore. Chris Buckle is vice president of ESPN Investigative Enterprise and Digital Journalism. Marcia Cook, Brian Lockhart, Heather Anderson, and Burke Magnus are executive producers for 30 for 30. David Roberts, Mike Foss, and Roxanna Scott are executive producers for ESPN.
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