MLB’s Shohei Ohtani, Interpreter’s Gambling Scandal to Be Featured in New TV Series

Hollywood didn’t waste any time getting to work on a series about the Shohei Ohtani saga involving his former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara.

Lionsgate Television announced on Thursday its developing a scripted series about the gambling scandal that will be produced by Scott Delman and Albert Chen.

“This is major league baseball’s biggest sports gambling scandal since Pete Rose—and at its center is its biggest star, one that MLB has hitched its wagon on,” Chen said in the release. “We’ll get to the heart of the story—a story of trust, betrayal and the trappings of wealth and fame.”

Chen is a writer and author who previously worked as a senior editor at Sports Illustrated. He also wrote the 2019 book Billion Dollar Fantasy about the rise of FanDuel and DraftKings in the sports betting world.

Delman’s previous television credit was as a producer on the 2021 limited series Station Eleven.

Ohtani was at the center of a gambling scandal involving Mizuhara. In an interview with ESPN’s Tisha Thompson, Mizuhara initially said Ohtani sat with him and transferred the money in $500,000 increments in several different settings.

Thompson noted a spokesman disavowed Mizuhara’s account shortly before the story was set to publish and Mizuhara said he had not been truthful and Ohtani was not involved in any of the situation.

The Los Angeles Dodgers fired Mizuhara, who had been working as Ohtani’s interpreter since his first MLB season in 2018, on March 20 amid questions surrounding at least $4.5 million in wire transfers from Ohtani’s bank account to a bookmaking operation in Southern California that was under federal investigation.

During his first press conference after the scandal broke, Ohtani said via interpreter Will Ireton he had no knowledge of Mizuhara’s gambling.

An affidavit filed by federal authorities on April 11 stated Mizuhara stole more than $16 million from Ohtani over a two-year period. The complaint also noted Mizuhara was averaging 25 bets per day ranging from $10 to $160,000 per wager during a period from December 2021 to January 2024.

A betting spreadsheet obtained by authorities showed a “net balance of negative $40,678,436” from $142 million in total winnings and total losses of $183 million.

Federal authorities announced on April 11 that Ohtani was cleared of any wrongdoing and a victim in the case.

Prosecutors said on Wednesday that Mizuhara will plead guilty to bank and tax fraud in which he is alleged to have stolen close to $17 million from Ohtani. The charge of bank fraud carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. The false tax return charge carries a prison sentence of up to three years.

Mizuhara will also be required to pay restitution to Ohtani and the IRS as part of his guilty plea.