In July, Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper entered a No. 2 pile thanks to one custom video purchased from FanDuel to ensure that a valued customer (IEa consistent loser) would continue to lose.
The situation opened a can of worms.
Via David Gambacorta i Philadelphia Inquirera FanDuel executive recently admitted in a letter to Congress that, over the past two years, FanDuel has sent approximately 30 personalized videos from “athletes and entertainers” to other consistent losers.
“On occasion, FanDuel has arranged a personalized video message, almost always through publicly available services, as a token of appreciation for customer loyalty in choosing FanDuel over its competitors,” FanDuel senior vice president of public policy and sustainability Cory Fox wrote on Sept. 24.
Fox claimed the videos were not used to “encourage customers to continue gambling”.
Of course they intend for losers to keep losing. It’s all part of the larger relationship between VIP hosts (which must mean “highly incompetent forecasters”) and their customers.
FanDuel declined to identify the 30 “athletes and entertainers.” They should. Without this information, it is possible that one or more of the videos came from NFL players.
Either way, it’s another example of the things sportsbooks will do to keep the money flowing. Their only commodity is money. The more your money holds, the more money they make.
And outfits like FanDuel don’t end up worth multi-billion dollars without multi-billion dollars flowing from the customer to the company.
The best news is that Congress is exercising oversight of the industry. Like the days of the Wild West Everyone bets now! continue, meaningful regulation of the industry is long overdue.