Tisha Thompson in 2024 broke news about one of the biggest and most surprising scandals in sports — the transfer of large sums of money from baseball great Shohei Otani’s bank account to illegal bookmakers. Two years later, she just might have more to say on the subject.
Thompson will lead a six-part podcast series, “The Betrayal of Shohei Ohtani,” produced under ESPN’s long-running “30 for 30” banner. The podcast debuts July 28 with a drop of the first two episodes, with new chapters released every Tuesday and Thursdays through August 11. The program not only examines the surprising incident but also the collapse of the friendship between Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara, his interpreter and the person who used the pitcher’s money to cover gambling debts. Listeners will be able to hear, for the first time, audio from the only press interview Mizuhara ever granted.
The conversation, says Thompson, represents “probably one of the most important interviews I’ve ever done in my career, and it is also the strangest interview I’ve ever done.”
Sports fans were hooked on every last detail of the Ohtani imbroglio. Here, after all, was a player who had yet to demonstrate any landmark performance in the U.S., and who had in 2023 struck a 10-year contract with the Dodgers valued at $700 million. “This is all taking place in the lead-up to his debut in a Dodgers uniform, and Major League Baseball was going all in on showing that he was already the face” of the organization,” says Thompson. “He was the big, emerging star and so much money and marketing dollars had already been spent.”
ESPN die-hards have long been accustomed to longer-form journalism from the Disney sports-media giant, not only from “30 for 30” but also programs such as “E:60.” Over the years, ESPN has faced questions about how many more enterprise and investigative stories it can produce as it is forced to spend bigger sums on sports rights and as it draws closer to some of the sports leagues that supply the programs keeping fans watching. Disney has said that ESPN’s approach to journalism will not change even though the National Football League in 2025 took a 10% ownership stake in the sports outlet.
To be sure, there are likely several parties that would prefer if Thompson just let the matter drop. At the same time, the Ohtani story continues to generate chatter and interest, she says, and there is more detail to offer. “We were able to get a ton of new reporting that people had never heard,” she says, and to broaden the tale by examining what the rise of wagering has done to the culture of sports.
One of the people surfacing on the podcast is Matthew Bowyer, a bookmaker who ran an illegal gambling business — sports betting remains illegal in California — and counted Mizuhara among his clients. Bowyer “is going to explain how he did it,” says Thompson, “how he hooked millionaire clients, where he went to look for them, how he lured them in and how he lured them to his sportsbook, how he would keep them on the line even though they were getting in over their heads.” Listeners will also hear from one of the investigators on the case, says Thompson, the “first time people who actually have first-hand knowledge about what happened will talk about what they saw and why they came to the conclusions that that they did.”
She also hopes people who follow her story will come to understand how hard she and ESPN colleagues worked to make certain they were presenting factual material, and not idle chatter. “I’m not in the business of rumors. I’m in the business of presenting sourced information,” the journalist says. “This was a very challenging story. Investigative reporting is hard and part of the reason it’s hard is because it affects people’s lives and their reputations.”
This program also has room for the offbeat. Listeners will learn of an association between Bowyer and one of the players on “The Real Housewives of Orange County.” Ryan Boyajian. Boyajian, then the fiancé of Jennifer Pedranit, was apparently wired Ohtani’s money. Boyajian received immunity in exchange for providing testimony, according to ESPN reporting.
The story continues to generate interest, says Thompson, who notes she gets questions about it while visiting the dentist or while standing on the sidelines at kids’ sports events. “This is all they want to talk to me about.” This new examination of the Ohtani money scandal may fuel further conversation.
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