Shohei Ohtani and his interpreter’s gambling scandal may grace television screens sometime soon but this time at Starz, where it is nearing a series order.
The untitled series was previously in the works at Lionsgate Television but could be headed to Starz after the studios’ split this spring. Lionsgate and Starz were previously one larger companies but the two were separated in May 2025.
Starz declined to comment about the series’ pickup to TheWrap.
The Lionsgate TV series was set to be produced by Scott Delman (“Station Eleven”) and “Billion Dollar Fantasy” author Albert Chen. The series would chronicle the Japanese baseball player’s meteoric rise into American Major League Baseball — including his mammoth 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers — which was abruptly disrupted when his interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, allegedly stole nearly $17 million from Ohtani to gamble and pay his own gambling debts. He was fired shortly thereafter.
Ohtani’s former interpreter pled guilty to bank fraud and tax fraud in June 2024 after admitting to stealing more than $16 million from the Dodgers star player. From December 2021 to January 2024, the interpreter allegedly losst more than $40 million across 19,000 illegal sports bets.
Mizuhara was sentenced to nearly 5 years in prison for embezzlement in February, but he may also face deportation back to his home country of Japan after serving his time. The courts ordered him to pay more than $18 million in restitution, with the bulk of the money going to Ohtani and the rest to the Internal Revenue Service.
“This is Major League Baseball’s biggest sports gambling scandal since Pete Rose — and at its center is its biggest star, one that MLB has hitched its wagon on,” “Billion Dollar Fantasy” author Chen said in 2024 when the series was initially announced. “We’ll get to the heart of the story — a story of trust, betrayal and the trappings of wealth and fame.”
Chen’s financial thriller tells the true story behind the clash of billion dollar companies FanDuel and DraftKings that upended American sports viewing.
