PTI - THE BETRAYAL OF SHOHEI OHTANI: Episode 1

Episode Date: August 9, 2026

ESPN Investigative Reporter Tisha Thompson receives a tip that, if true, could damage Shohei Ohtani’s picture-perfect reputation.    To listen to the rest of The Betrayal of Shohei Ohtani, follow 30 for 30 Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, 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. Shohay and Ipe were one of the most famous romances 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 games.

It's a story you might have heard about, but as it turns out, what was reported in the news is just the beginning. If you like what you hear, check out the main 30 for 30 podcast feed or search the betrayal of Shohei Otani wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening. It's November 2024, and the Los Angeles Dodgers are in their home stadium celebrating their World Series win. The players line up. up on the podium. Team manager Dave Roberts takes the mic and introduces some of the stars. Let's hear it. Friday! Friday! And then he calls out the name everyone's waiting for.

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 Mike. This is so special format movie. This is one of the first times that Shohei has spoken publicly in English without an interpreter. I'm so honored to be here and to be part of esteem. Congratulations, Los Angeles. Thank you for us. That'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. There's a drop. Shohei in October with a three-run home run. O'Sahe!

Seasons! Many believe he could become the best baseball player of all time. It's really not hyperbole, guys, to say that Shohei Otani is the new Babe Ruth. It's the kind of success that helps overshadowed. what happened just months before at the start of this season when Shohei was caught up in a scandal that could have ended at all. We're going to turn to the scandal Rocky Major League Baseball. Shohei Otani is set to address the media today. The 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 in disgrace.

And in this moment, at the World Series celebration, you could almost forget it ever happened. But two years later, I still have so many questions. So I'm going to travel the country, chase down Leeds, and try to understand how one of sports' most complicated friendships

detonated into one of the biggest scandals in baseball history. I'm ESPN investigation. Quest about wire transfers, $4.5 million to a Southern California bookmaker, and he has no idea of it. I'm ESPN investigative reporter Tisha Thompson from 30 for 30 podcasts.

This is the betrayal of Shohei Otani. Episode 1, the letter O. In 2010, the family of four in California goes missing. And the clues left behind, send investigators on a years-long search. Is this a family on the run? Or is the truth far more sinister? From ABC Audio in 2020, this is what happened to the mixed days. Coming August 11th, wherever you get your podcasts.

Or subscribe to 2020. True Crime Plus on Apple Podcasts for ad-free episodes, early access to new episodes, and so much more. I started working on this story a year before Shohei won that World Series, when a source sent me a tip. At first, the tips 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 brightling watches, handbags from Chanel, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, and casino chips. Lots and lots

of casino chips. Why were the feds interested in it? 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 bankwires. 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. My 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. You tell me the name of the athlete involved and 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, like, hey, like, do you think, is Shohay Otani gambling with a bookie? This 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 whisper 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 show he gamble. Even if the answer was no, they might tell someone else in the clubhouse that ESPN was

asking if show had gambled. And then that person says to someone else, hey, I heard show hey, I heard showy gambles. By the time I call several someone's later, that person then says to me, oh yeah, I have heard he gambles. All I have done is confirm a rumor that I started, a rumor about Shohei Otani paying millions of dollars to an illegal bookie. I 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. It'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. What do you think the biggest moneymaker is for the casino? Pennyslot. That'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 sports book, watching as people place beds. Do they put the sports book in the back on purpose?

Yes. make you walk through all the A-F-Lap machines. I wanted to talk to Purdom about 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? I had not. Never heard of him. We 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. Right. I 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,

a lot of talked to people here, and they knew of him. A 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. We had a source who was involved with running money for that group, and he was telling us, be careful, right? Because Owen Hanson was not known as a good person.

He was known as a violent person around the betting community. And when we were ties to Boyer, there was concern. Over the next few weeks, we gathered more sources and confirmed Boyer was running, a huge sports book operation in Southern California. Is California more prolific with bookies than other parts of the world? Massive, massive bookmaking operations in California. Why? Because there's no legal sports betting.

Sports 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 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 draft kings, not on Fandul, 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. People 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 a thousand bucks. The guy says, okay, 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.

Another reason someone might seek out a bookie is anonymity. If you are an athlete betting with the draft kings, 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. So Purdam says a celebrity who wants to bet discreetly might use a bookie. When I told him that Shohei Otani was the athlete my source told me might be involved with Matt Boyer.

I was stunned. I remember when you relayed the message to me who the athlete was, I was like, oh my gosh, I believe I cursed. Why is sports betting such a sensitive topic for Major League Baseball? Well, 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. Major League Baseball banned eight players from the Chicago World Series.

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. So that was the big one. The next time you get some sort of betting scandal was Pete Rose. Number 4,192 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 was stupid.

Worst thing I ever did in my life. In 1989, MLB punished Pete Rose with a lifetime ban for betting on baseball. Pete Rose was one of the greatest ball players 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 Shohey Otani the greatest player of his generation be the next Pete Rose? If they were to have found out that he was betting on baseball, you would have been banned for life. And this is your biggest star, banned for life.

Part of what made the allegation so shocking was how Shohiotani had a reputation for being squeaky clean. Before this, 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 connection. But we realized we don't actually know all that much about Sho Hay's life outside of baseball. He is the most guarded and protected athlete that I think I've ever been around. This is ESPN's Tim Kewen.

Tim specializes in writing profiles of the most famous and oftentimes controversial names in sports. People like Barry Bonds, Aaron Rogers, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Tim says he's been trying to decipher the enigma that is Shohay Otani ever since he first arrived here in the United States. When 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. He will only take questions about the game and very few, three, maybe four in each language. And these are in like bit questions. I want to know, like, you just threw 117 pitches. Are you, what do you feel today?

And he would not, he just doesn't entertain those. He's just not built that way. Tim says most of what you know about Shohei is limited to what show hey is willing to tell you. And it rarely leaves the realm of the ballpark. And when it does, it's on show his terms. Like when he got married, people didn't even know Shohei was in a relationship until he posted about his wife on Instagram. He has lots of tie. 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 by 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. Show his teammates, and even Dodgers manager, Dave Roberts, didn't know about it. I don't know what I don't know I felt like it was a good timing because it's before the season I didn't want really any distractions once the season started

I 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 wave possible. Are you nervous at all playing in the postseason for the first time? Nope. 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. He'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. Otani Dioz. That's a called strike three. He can throw a baseball over 100 miles an hour and he can hit a ball 500 feet. Up and over the roof.

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 at the top of the first. He is a dream for Major League Baseball. And 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. Oh my goodness! Come 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 in MLB. Shohei himself makes more than $125 million in endorsements a year,

with much of that money coming from advertisements in Japan. When 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 a water, sports drink, or Hugo Boss, or something. I mean, everywhere is Otani. After touching down in Tokyo, it's easy to see

Otani mania is really a thing. Everyone in Japan is by default a Shohei fan. The appetite for Otani, the love for Otani, appears to be as limitless as his talent. If 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? Shock. Shock combined with sort of a reassessment of everything I had seen leading up to that, plus another layer of, like, who knows? I'd been investigating this tip for two months when in January 2020, 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. They played bumper pool together, and they played Clash of Clans, and was just this sort of buddy comedy, this little white guy and this big Japanese guy buddying around. Fletcher's social media shows he is an avid poker player.

I don't think he broadcast it, but I don't think he hit it. And 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 Shohey'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 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 and 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. Showhe Otani. According to the screenshots I just saw, Shohay Otani'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 Shohay and the Booky'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. interpreter Ipe Mizuhara Ipe Mizahara Shohay's interpreter for the past six years The source tells me Ipe is prepared to say he was the one gambling And that Shohay was paying his debts

Mysteries unravel and stunning truths Are revealed when 2020 investigates Follow the clues, the evidence, the breaking new details ABC's 2020 means True murder mystery. Shocking. If you follow true crime in 2020, then you've got to listen to this. Subscribe now to 2020 True Crime Plus. Add free exclusive true crime content. Search 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple podcasts and start for free trial. Terms apply. If there's someone we know even less about than

Shohay Otani, it's Ipe Mizahara, Shohay's interpreter. His biography provided by the Los Angeles Angels says Ipe was born in Japan but grew up and Southern California. 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. I want to talk about why I joined Angels, but I want you guys to see me trying to adjust with the team throughout the spring training. And maybe I think you guys will be find out why I chose the Angels. That was the right choice.

Ever since they arrived in the States, Shohay and Ipe are always together, with Ipe seemingly just a few steps behind Shohay at all times. And Ipe does a lot more than just translate. Ipe carries Shohey's gear. When Shohay needs a ride, Ipe drives him. When Shohay warms up for a game,

he doesn't use a pitching coach, he throws to Ipe. When Shohay competed in the 2021 MLB home run derby, he chose Ipe to be his catcher. What a fun moment that's going to be for him. 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 and life with Shohei, what do you guys do throughout the day before you even get here through the ballpark? We'll eat breakfast every day at the hotel, if we're on the road, if not at home. then it's pretty much it.

It got to the point where, you know, I wondered, how could you spend that much time with one person? When 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. To 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 was like a 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 batters box or on the mound.

They appeared to be extremely close. There was no IPE without Shohei. It manifested itself in me by like going to players and saying, does it ever occur to you that these guys get sick of each other? The source told me they thought Ipe might be taking the fall for Shohei, but I didn't know what to think. The walls were so thick and so impenetrable that, I mean, anything seemed possible, right?

We didn't quite know what to make of the Ipe connection. My editor Elaine and I spent weeks investigating the possibilities. Whether 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. But there are two people who we thought would know the truth. Shoh-Haw-Haw-Tani and Ipe Mizahara.

By March 2024, I've been working on this for five months, and we've collected enough information to go to Sho-Hae's agent. In an email, I tell him, I have sources who have told us about Shoh-Houh-Tani's involvement with Mad Boyer. I purposefully don't tell him that I know Matt 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 Shohay's agent has just brought him on to represent Shohay.

Some of Hiltzik's clients have included Hillary Clinton and Ivankotrop, 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. Show his bank account. wired millions of dollars to Boyer's operation. But he tells me, someone else did the bets.

Shohay 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 Shohay Otani. He says, maybe I have to see, but I can give you someone else. I'm Ipe, Mizahara, and you do have permission to record me. That'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 Kewen 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 Nabarro. Story editing by Audrey Quinn, Alang Tang, Eric Neal and Mike Drago. Additional editing by Rebecca Hudson. Our archival producer is Jennifer Wheelock. Our line producer is Catherine Sanky.

Production managers are Jason Schwartz and Sheena Williams. Fact-checking by John Master Beridino with David Sabino. Additional editorial review from Masay-Niwa. Original music by Alison Layton Brown and John DeLore. Sound design by John DeLore. Chris Buckle is vice president of ESPN investigative enterprise and digital journalism. Marsha 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.