Major League Baseball fired umpire Pat Hoberg on Monday for violating the league’s sports betting policy.
Following a lengthy appeals process, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred upheld the previous decision to terminate an umpire considered to be one of the game’s best behind the plate, according to a league announcement.
“The disciplinary action was taken due to Hoberg’s failure to uphold the integrity of the game by sharing sports betting accounts with a professional poker player and friend who bet on baseball and whom Hoberg should have known bet on baseball, and due to Hoberg’s intentional deletion of messages central to MLB’s investigation into his conduct,” MLB said in a statement.
Sportsbook data provided by operators showed that Hoberg never wagered on baseball from his electronic devices. The league also found no evidence that Hoberg manipulated games or made any calls that indicated an integrity risk.
MLB’s gambling policy prohibits umpires, players, and other team personnel from having someone place bets on their behalf or placing on the behalf of others, as Hoberg was instructed during an MLB umpire training session last year.
Hoberg can apply for reinstatement no earlier than the start of spring training in 2026.
“I take full responsibility for the errors in judgment that are outlined in today's statement,” Hoberg said through a Major League Baseball Umpires Association statement. “Those errors will always be a source of shame and embarrassment to me.”
The investigation
MLB was tipped off by a sports betting operator, who discovered that Hoberg opened an account from a device associated with a non-employee of MLB.
The league opened the investigation into Hoberg, 38, in February 2024, and he was removed from calling games during spring training and the start of the regular season.
In May, Michael Hill, the league’s senior vice president of on-field operations, determined that Hoberg could not be trusted to “maintain the integrity of the international game of baseball.”
Under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, Hoberg was allowed to appeal the decision and have the case reviewed by a “neutral fact finder,” who can’t make a final ruling but the finder’s perspective can be taken into account by 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. “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.”
The betting
According to MLB’s findings, Hoberg became friends with the bettor at a poker tournament in 2014.
Hoberg began placing bets through his friend’s account in 2015 or 2016. After sports betting became legal in Iowa in 2019, Hoberg would place bets on his friend’s account when the individual was out of state through two different sportsbooks.
Hoberg’s devices were used to make 417 wagers from Dec. 30, 2020 through Jan. 15, 2024 on his friend’s accounts. More than $487,000 was wagered with $53,189 lost in aggregate at one of the sportsbooks. The other revealed that 112 bets totaling $222,130 were made on the other account, losing $21,686.
Hoberg never made deposits into his friend’s account, and most of those wagers were on football, basketball, hockey, or golf.
However, the individual placed 141 bets on baseball, including 19 from Hoberg’s home. Eight baseball bets were on the moneyline or total runs scored in five games Hoberg worked.
“Overall, although the baseball bets were profitable, the data did not support a finding that baseball bets from Individual A’s accounts were connected to game-fixing or other efforts to manipulate any part of any baseball game or event,” MLB said. “Critically, the baseball betting activity did not focus on any particular Club, pitcher, or umpire, and there was no apparent correlation between bet success and bet size. The eight bets on games Hoberg worked similarly did not reveal any obvious pattern.”
Messages deleted
MLB discovered that Hoberg was having his friend place bets for him through the messaging app Telegram. A ledger of Hoberg’s betting history was kept on Telegram. However, Hoberg and his friend only settled with cash in person.
After being contacted by MLB officials, Hoberg’s friend deleted the app. Hoberg also deleted Telegram and the threads with the betting information.
Hoberg told MLB that he was embarrassed by the amount of his non-baseball betting activity and had no idea he was under investigation since he had not placed wagers on MLB games.
This impeded MLB’s investigation, helping lead to the disciplinary action.
“Hoberg’s actions regarding the deletion of messages made those messages irretrievable,” MLB said. “Later efforts by MLB and Hoberg to recover those messages failed.”
Hoberg began umpiring MLB games in 2014 and became a full-time umpire in 2017. During the 2022 World Series, he correctly called 129 taken balls and strikes.
