LOL, Daily Fantasy Has Figured Out How To Offer Straight Sports Bets
Shoot me in the face, please
The sometimes white, often gray market of daily fantasy sports apps offering parlays to customers isn’t apparently going anywhere.
With that reality, why not push the envelope even more? SURE, LET’S DO THIS.
I got this promotion in my inbox from Boom Fantasy:
Currently, several apps are using the idea that picking two or more player outcomes (two players to hit home runs, for instance) fits DFS and game of skill laws across the country. Of course, that’s just gambling, no matter how you define it, even if an app is offering that kind of game legally in the US.
Let me spell it out: The above promotion is just a prop bet. Ohtani will obviously hit under 999 home runs in any game. Then you have to pick ONE MORE PLAYER OUTCOME. This is DEFINITELY GAMBLING, even if it’s offered at favorable odds to the bettor/”daily fantasy sports user.” There’s no functional difference between this and just betting on a player’s over-under at a sportsbook, other than what law you are using to justify it.
(Edit: It appears that PrizePicks and Underdog Fantasy offer similar promotions that create a mechanic that allows for single predictions.)
Yes, this is a promotion, with a max “entry” of $10, and it pays out at a rate that matches predicting two outcomes. However, those mechanics don’t make it something other than predicting/betting on a single outcome.
But the Rubicon has now been crossed, and we’re just cosplaying at fantasy sports. Why not always give out “free picks” with the parlays? Or offer very soft lines (less obvious than the Ohtani example here) so we continue to move toward what everyone wants to do in the quasi-regulated space: offer straight bets for money. We’re probably not far away from someone trying this, even if the better actors in this space are going to avoid it.
Anyway, pushing the envelope of what you can get away with has been the name of the game since FanDuel and DraftKings started all this more than a decade ago. But this is even probably (or maybe) legal, because the patchwork of DFS and game of skill laws in the US are extremely stupid.
Will it ever get fixed? Who knows. But it probably should be, and I know regulated sportsbooks aren’t happy this is going on in states where sports betting is not yet legal.
The Closing Line is An +More Media publication.
For sponsorship inquiries email scott@andmore.media.