Pete Rose bets on Reds to win 2023 World Series

Pete Rose. Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Pete Rose makes bet on Reds to win 2023 World Series

By Chelena Goldman | Last updated 1/2/23

Sure, it's weird that a guy who was banned from baseball for gambling on his own team is making headlines for, well, gambling on the said team yet again.

But here we are. The new year is underway and Ohio has officially launched legal sports betting, with none other than Pete Rose placing the first legal bet at the Hard Rock Casino in Cincinnati.

His wager? For the Reds to win the World Series in 2023.

Pete Rose bets on the Reds to win the World Series with the first official legal sports bet in Ohio. pic.twitter.com/kKHLWKh2ZZ
— Cincinnati (@CincyProblems) January 1, 2023

If you're feeling a cringeworthy sense of deja vu, it's because Rose received a lifetime ban from Major League Baseball in 1989 for betting on the Reds while he was managing them. This surely made things awkward when Rose told Spectrum News: "I don't know a damn thing about odds."

Pete Rose bet on the Cincinnati Reds to win a World Series as the first official legal sports bet in Ohio pic.twitter.com/JqTf86t7C0
— Bush Leaguer (@BushLeague101) January 1, 2023

Ohio sports betting was actually signed into law in December 2021, but it took nearly a year for the state to hammer out all the details (since each state can create rules and regulations for legal sports betting as they see fit.) The Buckeye State now offers both legal in-person and online sports betting.

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