Last month, Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci stated that despite the MLB season being less than halfway completed, the AL MVP race was an absolute done deal.
Many sports bettors were in complete agreement as they flooded sportsbooks to wager on the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani to win the Most Valuable Player Award in the American League. The dominant talent, who opened as the +200 favorite at SI Sportsbook prior to the start of the season, has now become a massive prohibitive favorite at -1099.
However, the rumors of Ohtani being potentially traded by the Halos has sent sports bettors into a panic who invested in the futures’ market, according to a report by Action Network's Darren Rovell.
Why?
It’s simple.
If Ohtani is traded to a team residing in the National League, bettors run the risk of the Japanese star not winning the award since no player in MLB history has ever been traded to the opposite league and still been awarded MVP honors in his previous league.
Stop us if you've heard this before: Shohei Ohtani has homered. pic.twitter.com/A2KLKXE54C
— MLB (@MLB) July 23, 2023
The game’s best player, who is easily the biggest liability in AL MVP betting for sportsbooks, would crush bettors and result in a financial windfall for ‘books if he were to move to the National League and not win the award in the American League.
As with all futures’ wagers all bets are “action,” meaning that even if Ohtani was traded there would not be any refunds.
Essentially, sports bettors with wagers on Ohtani are praying that if the star is dealt ahead of the Aug. 1 deadline, he remains in the American League.
