Major League Baseball has fired umpire Pat Hoberg after he shared sports betting accounts with a professional poker player who bet on baseball.
In a news release, the league said it found no evidence Hoberg manipulated baseball games, and said that “the data provided by the sportsbooks does not show any baseball bets from his own electronic devices.” However, the league found Hoberg deleted messages that were central to its investigation.
The league initially fired Hoberg on May 31 last year. Hoberg then appealed the process, which called for a “neutral factfinder” to be brought in.
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MLB umpire Pat Hoberg disciplined for violating gambling rules
However, per the umpires’ collective bargaining agreement, the ultimate ruling on the appeal rested with commissioner Rob Manfred.
“The strict enforcement of Major League Baseball’s rules governing sports betting conduct is a critical component of upholding our most important priority: protecting the integrity of our games for the fans,” Manfred said in a statement. “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. 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. Therefore, there is just cause to uphold Mr. Hoberg’s termination for failing to conform to high standards of personal conduct and to maintain the integrity of the game of baseball.”
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Hoberg can apply for reinstatement in spring training 2026 at the earliest.
“I take full responsibility for the errors in judgment that are outlined in today’s statement,” Hoberg said in a statement. “Those errors will always be a source of shame and embarrassment to me. Major League Baseball umpires are held to a high standard of personal conduct, and my own conduct fell short of that standard. That said, to be clear, I have never and would never bet on baseball in any way, shape, or form. I have 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.
“I apologize to Major League Baseball and the entire baseball community for my mistakes,” Hoberg’s statement read. “I vow to learn from them and to be a better version of myself moving forward.”
The umpires’ union released their own statement on the matter. “We thank Commissioner Manfred for his careful consideration of Pat Hoberg’s appeal,” the umpires’ statement read. “As Major League Baseball umpires, we have devoted our professional lives to upholding the rules and integrity of the game. If our union believed that an umpire bet on baseball, we would never defend him. But as today’s statement from the League makes clear, the neutral factfinder did not find that Pat placed bets on baseball. Yet we respect Pat’s unequivocal acceptance of responsibility for the mistakes that led to his termination.”
Hoberg became a full-time major-league umpire in 2017, and started working games professionally in 2009, according to MLB’s umpires media guide. The tracking site umpscorecards.com gave Hoberg a perfect score for a game he worked behind the plate during the 2022 World Series.
MLB disciplined Hoberg under a provision in the umpires’ CBA that broadly requires umpires to “maintain the integrity of the international game of baseball” on the field, as opposed to the sport’s famed Rule 21, which specifically addresses gambling.
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The league opened an investigation into Hoberg in February 2024, when a sportsbook notified the commissioner’s office Hoberg had opened an account on Jan. 30.
Sports gambling, which MLB and other professional sports leagues have embraced via sponsorship arrangements, has also produced significant controversy inside sports. Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter to Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani, is scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday for stealing nearly $17 million from Ohtani to pay gambling debts.
(Photo: Brace Hemmelgarn / Getty Images)
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