Moneyball: Shohei Ohtani made an estimated $60 million off the field last year, putting him in a league with Messi, Ronaldo and LeBron.
Christian Petersen/Getty ImagesThere are few athletes on the planet as marketable as Shohei Ohtani. His otherworldly talent, often drawing comparisons to Babe Ruth, coupled with good looks and charisma, has made the 29-year-old Japanese superstar baseball’s preeminent pitchman—on both sides of the Pacific.
Forbes estimates Ohtani now earns $60 million annually off the field, before taxes and agents’ fees, thanks to a robust stable of sponsors that includes U.S. companies such as Fanatics, Salesforce and New Balance, as well as Japanese brands Seiko, Kosé, DIP and Nishikawa.
Ohtani, baseball’s highest-paid player for the second consecutive year, now finds himself in rare company. Among active athletes, Forbes counts only four other individuals that earn $60 million or better annually from their off-field endeavors: LeBron James, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Tiger Woods.
But the two-time MVP is also facing the first real threat to his unblemished public image and vast earnings. Ohtani is embroiled in a scandal involving his former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, who allegedly stole $4.5 million from him to pay off illegal gambling debts. Last week, ESPN reported that it had reviewed two wire transfers from Ohtani's account to a bookie named Mathew Bowyer, totaling $1 million, from September and October. Sports gambling is legal in 38 states and the District of Columbia—but not California, where Ohtani lives and plays.
“I do want to make it clear,” Ohtani said at a press conference, “I never bet on sports or have willfully sent money to the bookmaker.”
On March 20, Ohtani’s lawyers at Berk Brettler LLP issued a statement to ESPN saying, "In the course of responding to recent media inquiries, we discovered that Shohei has been the victim of a massive theft and we are turning the matter over to the authorities." Mizuhara was fired by the Dodgers later that day.
Initially, Mizuhara and a crisis spokesperson for Ohtani had indicated that the Japanese superstar was helping his friend out of trouble, though oblivious to the extent. They both later backtracked, stating that Ohtani had no knowledge of Mizuhara’s gambling, debts or efforts to resolve them. In the following days, ESPN reported, through an unnamed source, that Ohtani’s representatives had contacted law enforcement to look into the alleged financial theft, while the IRS and MLB each opened their own investigations.
On Monday afternoon, Ohtani held a press conference (with a new interpreter, Will Ireton) and unequivocally denied any knowledge of Mizuhara’s actions. “On a personal note, I'm very saddened and shocked that someone who I'm trusted has done this,” he said in a prepared statement, without taking any questions. “I do want to make it clear that I never bet on sports or have willfully sent money to the bookmaker. I’m going to obviously let my lawyers handle matters from here on out and I am completely assisting in all investigations that are taking place right now.”
No Joke: Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara. were all laughs at DodgerFest in February, but Mizuhara's gambling scandal is the first real blemish on Ohtani's image.
Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty ImagesOf course, Ohtani isn’t the first sports marketing superstar to face a dire threat to his carefully protected image. In 2009, when Tiger Woods was injured in a car crash near his home in Florida, he initially received support from key sponsors like such as Nike and Gatorade. But as details about the 33-year-old Woods’ infidelity emerged, Gillette ended its partnership, along with AT&T, Accenture and PepsiCo, which cost Woods an estimated $35 million in annual income. It hurt those companies, too. “Mr. Woods' top five sponsors (Accenture, Nike, Gillette, Electronic Arts and Gatorade) lost 2-3 percent of their aggregate market value after the accident,” wrote academics Christopher R. Knittel and Victor Stango in a study published that year.
It was roughly another two years before Woods added a new sponsor to his portfolio—the pharmaceutical company Kowa, which coincidentally now works with Ohtani. And while the scandalous period may have cost Woods a run at Jack Nicklaus’ vaunted record of 18 Major championships, it ended up being a blip on his financial radar. The 48-year-old golfer, who remains one of the highest-paid athletes in the world, has pulled in an estimated $1.8 billion in career pretax earnings.
Five years earlier, Kobe Bryant faced a image crisis of his own when he was accused of sexual assault. The charges were eventually dropped, and the then-25-year-old Los Angeles Lakers star settled a civil suit from his alleged victim outside of court. But the controversy cost him sponsorship renewals with McDonald’s and Nutella. Bryant’s endorsement earnings eventually recovered, however, and he went on to retire from professional basketball having collected an estimated $680 million in pretax dollars, with more than $350 million coming from off-the-court endeavors.
“Time helps,” says Jonathan Grella, founder of crisis communications firm JAG Public Affairs. “Being able to have a full career afterwards helps a lot, and as best as we can tell, Ohtani is likely to have a decade and a half more of baseball in him, which should work to his benefit.”
For now, Ohtani and his team are presenting him as a victim of serious crime, and there is no indication that his sponsorships are in danger. Forbes reached out to his brand partners, which all either declined to comment or did not reply. Ohtani’s representatives and MLB both declined to comment, with the latter referring to a statement released on Friday: “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media. Earlier today, our Department of Investigations (DOI) began their formal process investigating the matter.”
Back in Japan, where Ohtani is a national hero, several marketing experts say fans are still showing unbridled support for their star athlete while cautiously awaiting more information. “Even if Ohtani did know of Mizuhara’s debt and made a wire transfer himself, which obviously Ohtani’s representatives deny, the Japanese people want [lenient] punishment for Ohtani for violating the MLB gambling regulations since he tried to help his buddy,” says Tomoya Suzuki, founder and president of the Japan-focused sports marketing firm Trans Insight Corporation. “We don’t [have] all the facts and evidence yet, so it is too early to tell, but I think Japanese people would prefer being honest and punished rather than being unfaithful to escape guilt. But even so, people would like [leniency] since he was trying to help someone.”
Heightening the stakes is baseball’s dark history with gambling. In 1919, eight members of the Chicago White Sox, including the legendary Shoeless Joe Jackson, were accused of fixing the World Series. The players were acquitted in a public trial, but the newly appointed baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned them from the sport for life. Eighty years later, MLB’s all-time hits leader, Pete Rose, was also given a lifetime ban following allegations that he had bet on baseball during the 1987 season. Rose admitted to doing so in an autobiography several years later.
With law enforcement, the IRS and MLB investigating the allegations against Mizuhara, the outcome is far from settled. In the meantime, Ohtani is heavily reliant on his marketing income. He will only earn $2 million annually from the Los Angeles Dodgers for the next 10 years as he chose to defer 97% of his record-setting $700 million contract.
“Today, he put it all out there,” Grella says. “He made the bold, declarative statement, and what comes next is going to tell the tale of how he's perceived down the road. So we have to stay tuned to see whether those bold declarations were the turning of the page or whether they were what was said before the other shoe dropped.”
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