MLB Umpire Fired For Sharing Sports Betting Accounts With Friend Who Put Money On Baseball

Major League Baseball umpire Pat Hoberg was fired on Monday after the league said he shared sports betting accounts with a friend who placed money on professional baseball games.

Hoberg — who was widely viewed as one of the best umpires in baseball — was also accused of intentionally deleting messages to his friend with whom he shared the legal gambling accounts. The umpire “adamantly denied betting on baseball directly or indirectly,” according to the MLB, but Hoberg’s friend — a professional poker player — placed numerous bets on MLB games, including five games in which Hoberg was umpiring or had responsibility for replay reviews.

“An extensive investigation revealed no evidence that Mr. Hoberg placed bets on baseball directly or that he or anyone else manipulated games in any way,” said MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred. “However, his extremely poor judgment in sharing betting accounts with a professional poker player he had reason to believe bet on baseball and who did, in fact, bet on baseball from the shared accounts, combined with his deletion of messages, creates at minimum the appearance of impropriety that warrants imposing the most severe discipline.”

According to the MLB, Hoberg’s friend placed 141 baseball bets between April 2, 2021, and November 1, 2023, for a total of $214,000. The umpire’s friend won nearly $35,000 in those bets, the Associated Press reported. In a statement, Hoberg said he takes “full responsibility for the errors in judgment that are outlined in today’s statement [from the MLB].”

An analysis of Hoberg’s umpiring showed no evidence that his calls were influenced by his friend’s bets, nor did they reveal any connection to a specific team, player, or umpire, according to ESPN. The pair met at a poker tournament in 2014, and they would regularly travel together and watch sports on TV. Hoberg and his friend, who was not named, would use Telegram to keep track of each of their bets on the gambling accounts, and they would settle any debts when they saw each other. Hoberg’s friend deleted the Telegram account after Hoberg was contacted by MLB investigators, a move Hoberg claimed was due to his embarrassment over the amount of legal bets he had placed on non-baseball events.

“Those errors will always be a source of shame and embarrassment to me,” Hoberg added. The umpire said that he “never and would never bet on baseball in any way, shape, or form” and that he has “never provided, and would never provide, information to anyone for the purpose of betting on baseball. Upholding the integrity of the game has always been of the utmost importance to me.”

Hoberg was praised for correctly calling all 129 balls and strikes during Game 2 of the 2022 World Series. The 38-year-old was first relieved of his duties by the MLB last May, a few months after MLB began its investigation. A lengthy appeals process followed, leading to the league’s decision on Monday.