Rob Manfred addresses MLB's next steps after betting scandal - ESPN

NEW YORK — Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred on Wednesday said the league did not anticipate any further restrictions on baseball prop bets after prominent U.S. sportsbooks recently established a nationwide $200 betting limit on individual pitches and banned those bets from inclusion in parlays to curtail the motivation for manipulation.

«I think that the most important undertaking and really the bedrock of our relationship with the sportsbooks is the ability to monitor betting activity,» Manfred said Wednesday during the owners meetings. «The ability to discern inappropriate patterns is really, really important. We understood the prop bet issue from the very beginning. I'm glad we've done something about it. But the rest of the program, right now, I think we're generally prepared to move forward under the rules that we have now.»

Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were charged Nov. 9 with fraud, conspiracy and bribery resulting from an alleged ruse to fix individual pitches to win money for gamblers. The prop bet constraints were announced the next day.

On Friday, members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which oversees professional sports, sent a letter to Manfred communicating concern with a «new integrity crisis» U.S. pro sports have confronted and seeking answers about the pitchers' alleged scheme.

Manfred on Wednesday said the league would «respond fully and cooperatively and on time» to the Senate inquiry, adding that the limitations announced this month were «a really, really significant change that should reduce the incentive for anyone to be involved in an inappropriate way.»

Clase and Ortiz are facing a lifetime ban for their alleged activity.