Top Trending Gambling News July 16: Manfred Worries About Microbets, Polymarket Probe Ends

Written by :

C Costigan

Published on :

16 July, 2025

These are your top trending news stories from the world of gambling and sports coming into Wednesday July 16, 2025. Last 24 Hours Gambling911 Impressions: 58.411.

Manfred Worries Over Microbets and Corruption

From David Payne Purdum of ESPN:

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred remains a proponent of the legal sports betting market but worries that microbets are vulnerable to corruption.

"Certain types of bets strike me as unnecessary and particularly vulnerable, things where it's one single act, doesn't affect the outcome necessarily."

Gambling Industry Analyst Joe Brennan Jr. responded:

"League employees break the law, but responsibility falls on the sportsbooks?

"Think Manfred is looking through the wrong end of the telescope

"We’ll help out with the monitoring, but it’s on MLB to keep their employees from breaking the law."

Then there was this counterpoint from Purdum:

"Sportsbooks say they want to protect the integrity of the game, yet they offer bet types vulnerable for corruption with limits high enough to make it worth the risk for unscrupulous actors."

Polymarket Probe Concludes With No Charges Filed

The Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have concluded an investigation into the gambling prediction market Polymarket with no charges filed.

The FBI raided the home of 26-year-old Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan back in November of last year and claimed he was not given a reason as to why. Coplan referred to the event as "grand political theater at its worst."

The Justice Department and CFTC claim they were investigating whether Polymarket accepted bets from those in the United States.

Polymarket received the formal notices earlier this month, informing the company that the probes, one civil and one criminal, had been completed, and no further action would be taken. Bloomberg News first reported the notices.

Polymarrket had been fined $1.4 million by the CFTC after that agency concluded that the marketplace had failed to register as a facility for even-based binary options, Bloomberg reported.

Coplan issued a statement to his X account on Tuesday following confirmation that the probe had concluded.

8 months ago, on election night, we were on top of the world after Polymarket called the election.

8 days later, the FBI broke down my door at 6am and took all my computers and phones, looking for anything that could imply foul play.

While traumatic, it etched the story of Polymarket's accuracy, and the ensuing resistance, into the history of American politics.

And today, I'm happy to announce that this chapter of the story is over.

After cooperating and engaging, we've been cleared of any wrongdoing. Justice prevailed.

God Bless America

Report: Ohtani Interpreter Bookie Sentencing Moved Up

"Attorneys for Matt Bowyer have reached a deal w/ the USAO for the Central District of Calif. to move up his sentencing date. Bowyer, the bookie to #Ohtani's ex-interpreter, will likely be sentenced in late-Aug, up several weeks from an Oct. 3 date Story to come in IGB."