Did not bet on baseball
After a year-long process, Major League Baseball has terminated the employment of Pat Hoberg, one of the best umpires in the game, for violation of the league’s gambling policy.
Specifically, MLB said that Hoberg shared betting accounts with a professional poker player friend who he knew bet on baseball and deleted communications important to the league’s investigation. According to MLB’s Monday press release, these actions constituted a “failure to uphold the integrity of the game.”
betting patterns on his account “did not show any discernible patterns indicative of an integrity risk”
Hoberg admitted fault but denied betting on baseball himself or giving anyone insider information that could have helped them in their wagering. MLB did acknowledge that it found no evidence that Hoberg manipulated games and that betting patterns on his account “did not show any discernible patterns indicative of an integrity risk.”
Because of this, Hoberg was not banned from baseball like the San Diego Padres’ Tucupita Marcano was in June 2024. Instead, he has been fired and is eligible to apply for reinstatement at the start of 2026 Spring Training. Hoberg did not umpire all last season while the investigation was ongoing.
Shared account with friend who bet on baseball
Major League Baseball said that the investigation began in February 2024 after a legal sportsbook notified the league that Hoberg had opened an account and that the device used to access the account was also associated with the poker player, “Individual A.”
The two men met at a poker tournament in 2014 and quickly became friends. In 2015 or 2016, Hoberg started placing bets through Individual A, and when Iowa, where Hoberg lives, legalized sports betting in 2019, Individual A opened accounts at two sportsbooks.
Hoberg could use his own devices to place bets when Individual A was not in the state
At first, Individual A made bets for Hoberg, but he eventually gave the ump the account’s login info so that Hoberg could use his own devices to place bets when Individual A was not in the state. Hoberg also placed some bets on the account for the poker player.
The first time Hoberg used his own device to place a bet was December 30, 2020 and he continued to do so for more than three years.
Hoberg communicated his bets – both ones he placed himself and ones the friend placed for him – to his buddy via the Telegram app. He also kept a “ledger” of wins, losses, and any money owed on Telegram.
Deleted communications to hide evidence
When Individual A found out about the investigation, he deleted the Telegram threads. Shortly thereafter, Hoberg deleted his Telegram account completely. He claimed that he was just embarrassed to admit how much non-baseball betting he was doing and that he didn’t know anything about his friend’s baseball wagering, but he obviously deleted the account to cover his tracks.
Between December 30, 2020 and January 15, 2024, Hoberg placed 417 bets on Individual A’s account at the first sportsbook for a total of $487,475.83. He had a net loss of $53,189.65. At the second sportsbook, Hoberg’s devices were used for at least 112 totaling $222,130.00. He lost $21,686.96 on those. None of the bets were on baseball.
Individual A did place 141 bets on baseball from April 2, 2021 to November 1, 2023. 19 of those bets were placed from Hoberg’s house and eight were on games in which Hoberg was personally involved. As mentioned, the league found no evidence that Hoberg manipulated games for betting purposes.
The best behind the plate
The shame of it all is that Pat Hoberg is arguably the best home plate umpire in the game. According to UmpScorecards.com, a site that tracks how well umpires call balls and strikes, Hoberg was the most accurate home plate umpire in baseball from 2021 to 2023, the period of time during which the betting occurred. In 13,725 pitches called, he had an accuracy rate of 95.4%.
He is also famous for being the only home plate umpire on record – UmpireScorecards’ history dates back to the 2015 season – to record a perfect umpiring game. That is, go through an entire game without calling a single ball or strike incorrectly.
And what’s more is that he did it in Game 2 of the 2022 World Series between the Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies. All 89 called balls were correct, as were all 40 called strikes.