Transcript
Rachel Yucatel (0:00)
Today on Misunderstood with Rachel Yucatel.
Matt Boyer (0:02)
There's the number one retail commodity broker in the world. I was the number one bookmaker in the world. ESPN came to my home and had some sources that knew that I was receiving wires from Shohei Ohtani. Feds raided me on October 5, 2023. I had about 800 clients active. Every Monday, I would say I was moving 5 to $7 million throughout the country. From the outside, every was like, well, how do you get tired of jumping on a plane and G550 and flying to Vegas and having a butler and 10,000 square foot room and, you know, millions of dollars and I'd buy her whatever she wanted. She didn't care about that stuff. She wanted to have her husband and her family right. That day in October 5th was one of the best days of my life when the feds raided my home.
Interviewer/Co-host (0:49)
Why?
Matt Boyer (0:49)
Because that was at a fork in the road.
Rachel Yucatel (0:55)
There is a chance this could be the biggest cover up in Major League Baseball history.
Interviewer/Co-host (1:00)
There.
Rachel Yucatel (1:17)
There are names you hear in the news that become bigger than the human behind them. Matt Boyer is one of those names. He's been called the bookie at the center of the Shohei Ohtani scandal. The man who handled hundreds of millions in bets. The guy whose operations stretched from California to Costa Rica. And pull involved in celebrities, athletes, and an interpreter who shook Major League Baseball to its core. But behind the headlines is a man who on August 29 was sentenced to 12 months and a day in federal prison. A man who now counts down the days until October 10, when he must walk into a prison cell and leave everything and everyone behind. For the next year of his life, he's been ordered to pay back $1.6 million, sit in counseling and serve out supervised release when he comes home. His empire has crumbled. And yet his story isn't over. Matt flew here to Florida to sit down with me face to face in what will be one of his last interviews before surrender. And while he's spoken to media before, I want you to understand why this conversation is different. Because we're not just going to talk about what he did. We're going to talk about who he is. We'll go back to his childhood, to the early rush of gambling, to what drew him into a life where risk and reward blurred until it consumed assumed him. We'll walk through the rise of his operation, the players involved, the infamous Ohtani connection, and the moment when it all came crashing down. And then we'll talk about the fear, the accountability and the preparation of a man who is about to lose his freedom in order to begin again. This isn't just another retelling of a scandal. This is about what happens when the lights fade, when the noise of the headlines disappears, and when a man is forced to reckon with himself. Matt Boyer is here, and this is the conversation you haven't heard. Matt, thank you so much for joining me today on Misunderstood.