LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers take center stage on Thursday as Major League Baseball's new season gets under way on American soil against the backdrop of a gambling scandal that has engulfed its brightest star.

When the Dodgers won the race to sign Japanese superstar Ohtani last December on a lavish $700 million deal — the richest contract in the history of North American sport — the move was widely hailed as a blockbuster coup.

A two-time American League Most Valuable Player, Ohtani's once-in-a-generation combination of elite pitching and hitting has seen him compared to the legendary Babe Ruth since his arrival in the major leagues in 2018.

The skyrocketing euphoria among Dodgers fans was given another jolt when the team acquired pitchers Tyler Glasnow and Ohtani's highly-rated Japan teammate Yoshinobu Yamamoto, further proof that the franchise is determined to make a serious run at the World Series.

But fast-forward three months and some of the breathless giddiness that greeted the Dodgers' December shopping spree has dissipated as they prepare to host the St. Louis Cardinals in Thursday's home opener.

The Dodgers launched their regular season with two games in Seoul against San Diego, splitting the series 1-1 last week.

The results, however, were a footnote to the scandal that erupted around Ohtani after his longtime friend and interpreter Ippei Mizuhara was accused of swindling him out of millions of dollars to pay off gambling debts.

Ohtani's camp issued a statement saying the superstar had been the victim of a "massive theft" by Mizuhara, who was promptly fired by the Dodgers last week.

Yet details of the scandal remained murky, clouded by contradictory statements given by Mizuhara, who initially told ESPN that Ohtani himself had signed off on payments to an illegal bookmaker totaling $4.5 million.