⚾ Biggest sports betting scandals ranked: Pete Rose, Black Sox

Black Sox acquitted yet banned; Pete Rose's ban ended in 2025; Tim Donaghy got 15 months. Rose's 1989 deal admitted nothing. 📌

By , sports desk · Desk editor Gustavs Ērkšķis-Kreicbergs · · 2 min read

Pete RoseRANKEDPhoto: John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0

Photo: John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Desaturated and cropped by MrScandal.

What we know

  • A Chicago jury acquitted seven former White Sox players and two gamblers over the 1919 World Series, and Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned eight players for life the next day, ESPN Classic reports.
  • Pete Rose signed an agreement with Commissioner Bart Giamatti on Aug. 23, 1989 that put him on the permanently ineligible list; the Los Angeles Times reported it says he 'neither denies nor admits' betting.
  • Commissioner Rob Manfred removed Rose from the list on May 13, 2025, ruling that permanent ineligibility ends at death, ESPN reports.
  • Tim Donaghy pleaded guilty in August 2007 to two federal counts and was sentenced on July 29, 2008 to 15 months in prison, ESPN reports.

Three betting scandals, three very different scoreboards. MrMuscles ranks them by how long the penalty stood on paper, with the money wherever the record gives a figure.

01

The Black Sox: acquitted by a jury, banned for life by the commissioner

A Chicago jury acquitted seven former White Sox players and two gamblers of conspiring to defraud the public over the 1919 World Series, ESPN Classic's account says. The players' celebration lasted less than a day: Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned all eight men, including Fred McMullin, whose case never went to trial. ESPN reports Joe Jackson accepted $5,000 in gamblers' cash, and the ban stood until May 2025, when MLB said 17 people, all eight Black Sox among them, had their status changed, per the Associated Press.

See the receipt (opens in a new tab)

"Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player that throws a ballgame; no player that undertakes or promises to throw a ballgame; no player that sits in a conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers where the ways and means of throwing games are planned and discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball."

Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, statement as quoted by ESPN Classic
02

Pete Rose: a lifetime ban with no finding on the bets

Rose agreed to a lifetime ban on Aug. 23, 1989, and the Los Angeles Times reported the deal says he 'neither denies nor admits' betting on any major league game. Giamatti said he concluded Rose bet on baseball; Rose told reporters, 'I didn't bet on baseball.' The inquiry cost about $1 million, the paper reported, and ESPN reports Rose later served five months in federal prison for submitting falsified tax returns. Manfred ended the ban on May 13, 2025, after Rose's death on Sept. 30, 2024, writing that 'permanent ineligibility ends upon the passing of the disciplined individual.'

See the receipt (opens in a new tab)

By the numbers

  • 35y 9mfrom first to latest entry on recordAug 1989 to May 2025, 3 dated entries in the file
  • 10receipts behind this story8 news reports, 1 public record, 1 court order, 1989 to 2025

Counted by MrScandal from the receipts, the Files and our rankings.

"I bet on my team every night. I didn't bet on my team four nights a week."

Pete Rose, on ESPN Radio's Dan Patrick Show, as reported by the Associated Press, March 2007
03

Tim Donaghy: the referee who did 15 months

Donaghy pleaded guilty in August 2007 to two federal counts and told a judge he was paid $30,000 for inside information on games, the New York Daily News reported. On July 29, 2008, Judge Carol Amon gave him two 15-month sentences to run concurrently, against a possible 33 months, ESPN reports. Amon set restitution at $217,266, shared with his two co-defendants, well below the nearly $1.4 million the NBA had sought. Donaghy's claims that referees and the league manipulated games drew denials from commissioner David Stern, and prosecutors said nothing else he alleged was criminal.

See the receipt (opens in a new tab)

Final tally: one acquittal that changed nothing, one signed deal that outlived its signer, and one prison term. Only one of the three ended in a sentence handed down by a court.

Quick quiz · 3 questions

  1. On the record or still rumour?Rose's 1989 agreement made no finding on his betting; in 2007 he said on ESPN Radio that he bet on his team every night.
  2. On the record or still rumour?Jontay Porter's NBA ban is not confirmed in the documents read, so it is not ranked here.
  3. Which year?Said on ESPN Radio's Dan Patrick Show he bet on the Reds every night while managing, per the Associated Press

More games on the record: Price Tag · Timeline

Earlier on file: NBA betting cases: Porter banned, Rozier and Billups indicted

The Pete Rose file

Last entry May 13, 2025
  1. Ruled

    Commissioner Manfred removed Rose from the permanently ineligible list, ruling bans end at death, per ESPN. This story

  2. Admitted

    Said on ESPN Radio's Dan Patrick Show he bet on the Reds every night while managing, per the Associated Press. This story

  3. Ruled

    Signed agreement with Commissioner Giamatti placing Rose on the permanently ineligible list; neither admits nor denies betting. This story

On file: The Pete Rose file · The National Basketball Association file · The Tim Donaghy file

The Ledger

On the record

  • Eight Black Sox were banned in 1921 after acquittals, Rose by signed agreement in 1989 (lifted in 2025), and Donaghy was sentenced to 15 months in 2008.
  • Rose's 1989 agreement made no finding on his betting; in 2007 he said on ESPN Radio that he bet on his team every night.

Still rumour

  • Jontay Porter's NBA ban is not confirmed in the documents read, so it is not ranked here.
  • Donaghy's claims of wider league manipulation: the NBA denied them, and prosecutors said nothing else he alleged was criminal.

That's the record. The rest is rumour. - MrMuscles

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