MLB Caps Pitch Microbets at $200 After Pitchers Indicted

Major League Baseball announced new restrictions on microprop betting Monday, capping wagers on individual pitches at $200 and barring them from parlays, in response to federal indictments against two Cleveland Guardians pitchers accused of rigging throws to benefit gamblers.

The changes, agreed upon with authorized gaming operators that handle more than 98 percent of the U.S. sports betting market, target so-called microbets on pitch outcomes, such as velocity or whether a pitch is a ball or strike. League officials described these markets as posing heightened integrity risks because they depend on actions by a single player and often do not affect the game's overall result. "Most prop bets present limited integrity risk because they take into account multiple events that are influenced by more than one actor," MLB said in a statement. "However, microbet pitch-level markets present heightened integrity risks because they focus on one-off events that can be determined by a single player."

The announcement followed the unsealing Sunday of an indictment in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn charging Guardians relievers Emmanuel Clase, 27, and Luis Ortiz, 26, with wire fraud...