Making Sense of the Shohei Ohtani and Jontay Porter Betting Scandals

The Huddle

As March Madness ramps up, it’s MLB superstar Shohei Ohtani and NBA rotation guy Jontay Porter that own the headlines this week.

The Los Angeles Dodgers’ $700 million dollar man has been mired in controversy all week as $4.5 million dollars was wired from his bank account to an illegal sports book and it turns out that his translator, Ippei Mizuara was responsible. Or was he?

Meanwhile, Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter is being investigated at the center of some betting irregularities over his player prop markets. Ninja and Tony attempt to make sense of everything going on with Shohei and Porter and what it means moving forward.

The Sweet 16 is ramping up with games starting back up later this week. The guys revisit their busted brackets and break down what they expect the Final Four too look like when the dust settles on Sunday.

Elsewhere in the NCAA Tournament, the guys look at the MOP futures board and where the value lies compared to where their school lies in outright markets; they take a quick glance at the Sweet 16 matchups and identify their favorite games; and they break down whether it’s better for the tournament if there is a chalky group, as there is going into the Sweet 16, or if it’s better to have a Cinderella team.

It’s MLB (real) Opening Day on Thursday, so the guys talk about some of the better betting strategies for newcomers to baseball betting and look at some exact World Series matchups that they like going into the regular season!

Finally, the guys talk about the new rule changes that will be implemented in the 2024 NFL regular season including a ban on a specific tackle and a new format to kickoffs.

All this and more on this week’s episode of The Huddle!