Bookie of Shohei Ohtani's Ex-Interpreter Believes More Than Half of Athletes Bet on Sports

Gabe Smallson | Apr 10, 2025

Dec 21, 2023; Inglewood, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers player Shohei Ohtani (left) and interpreter Ippei Mizuhara (right) pose with Los Angeles Rams mascot Rampage (center) at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The Los Angeles Dodgers signed Shohei Ohtani to a 10-year, $700 million contract in Dec. 2023, but just a few months later, a multi-million dollar scandal involving his now fired interpreter came to light.

Ippei Mizuhara stole nearly $17 million from Ohtani's account to make illegal sports bets, including impersonating the three-time MVP and using his name to make multiple six-figure wire transfers. He has been sentenced to 57 months in prison for the fraud and theft.

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The man who ran this multi-million dollar sports betting operation is Mathew Bowyer. Bowyer is still awaiting his own sentence for running this more-than-700 client gambling scheme that included former pro athletes.

This led Bowyer to believe that more in the world of sports bet on their own industry than the public believes.

“Athletes are always going to bet on sports," Bowyer says. “They are competitive people. But at the end of the day, how do they control it? It’s really sad to see some of these guys ruin their lives over this. There’s a big problem here, I don’t know what the exact answer is, but they have to figure it out fast."

This has led Bowyer to have a career change, of sorts, after he is done serving the expected multi-year sentence for his gambling ring. USA Today's Bob Nightengale reported that Bowyer wants to help athletes avoid the dirty world of sports gambling after he serves his time.

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Bowyer specifically talked about minor league baseball player and friend David Fletcher who is currently with the Atlanta Braves Double-A affiliate, Columbus Clingstones.

“He never bet on baseball, he just bet on sports," Bowyer said. “I feel bad for him. This tarnished him. He did nothing wrong in my opinion. He was just doing what I think more than half of the athletes are doing."

Other baseball players, and in some cases umpires, have been illegally betting on sports for years, but Bowyer plans to right his wrongs after serving prison time.

“I’d like to save other people from taking the same footsteps and falling in the same mistakes I made."

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