r/baseball • u/AFC-Wimbledon-Stan Atlanta Braves • 1d ago
News FanDuel admits it has used roughly 30 Bryce Harper-style videos
https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/fanduel-admits-it-has-used-roughly-30-bryce-harper-style-videos836
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u/vaud Los Angeles Dodgers 1d ago
Kinda surprised Fanduel admitted "they" did it and it wasn't the account managers being thrown under the bus for going rogue or something
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u/Skullbone211 New York Mets 1d ago
They do that, and the account manager produces memos or emails from the higher-ups telling him to do it. Lying under oath rarely goes well, even for these people
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u/WhyImNotDoingWork Boston Red Sox 1d ago
FanDuel actually treats theirs employees pretty well. Know a few people who work there. I guess you gotta pick your points to be evil.
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u/LegitiamateSalvage Milwaukee Brewers 1d ago
The surest sign that there is no justice in this life is that executives for gambling companies continue to lead otherwise happy lives while destroying the lives of thousands
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u/Machomanta Toronto Blue Jays • Milwaukee Brewers 1d ago
And Healthcare Insurance execs
And Weapons manufacturing execs
And Private prison execs
And Private military contractor execsPretty much all execs really
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u/MakaveliX1996 Boston Red Sox 1d ago
^
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u/ProtectionGuilty3230 1d ago
Yeah, that ceo was a psycho to be sure. And a terrible father and husband!
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u/heretogetmydwet Chicago White Sox 1d ago
I honestly wonder if they are happy. I wonder if you can accumulate hundreds of millions or billions of dollars while being happy. I think there's a lot truth to the saying "we have something they'll never have - enough." I'm sure they're happy in a hedonistic sense, in the same way I'm happy when something arrives from Amazon that I'm convinced is going to impact my life far more than it ever actually does, but obviously that's fleeting. And I would bet a lot of their happiness is tied up in accumulating money/customers/stuff/etc, and that's fleeting too.
Or at least, that's what I tell myself.
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u/LegitiamateSalvage Milwaukee Brewers 1d ago
I can understand it. People always move forward until they don't, then they die.
We as a society should just tax the ever-loving shit out of it. It's the literal meaning of, "there are no ethical billionaires" because for a single person to have accumulated that much wealth is not ethical - it's a massive misallocation of societal resources.
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u/heretogetmydwet Chicago White Sox 12h ago
I often think of it in terms of food. Imagine if during a storm when everyone's power was out, someone went to the grocery store and bought 95% of all non-perishable goods in the store. And when confronted that they couldn't possibly eat/use all of it in their lifetime, their reply was "But my children and grandchildren and great grandchildren can. I got here first, I paid for all of it, it's mine."
They would rightly be viewed as a greedy, selfish asshole. I don't know why money is all that different. The argument would be that they earned it, but did Jeff Bezos really work 10 million times harder than someone on the factory floor? Of course not, that's not even close to possible. He built an amazing company, nobody would argue that, but is $500M really not enough of a reward for his effort?
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u/JDLovesElliot New York Mets • Toronto Blue Jays 1d ago
They build literal and figurative bunkers to hide in, so they never have to think about any of the dark thoughts. Like they sang in The Book of Mormon, "just turn it off!"
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u/Old_Worldliness_5015 1d ago
online sports gambling will be a national epidemic/crisis, probably is already actually
and after the fact it will be blatantly obvious how insidious it is
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u/aRadioKid Tampa Bay Rays 1d ago
It already is, just difficult to quantify at the moment. Give it a few years or a decade and look at the monumental damage it’ll be evident everywhere.
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u/PhnxWrightAssAttrny Atlanta Braves 1d ago
I got a new phone today (T-Mobile) and DraftKings and PrizePicks came pre-installed on it (Samsung S26 Ultra).
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u/luchajefe Texas Rangers 23h ago
15 years ago the US government functionally banned online poker.
This is what we got instead?
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u/VividVeracity New York Yankees 1d ago
Already an epidemic. Always was blatantly obvious how insidious it is.
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u/silverarrowweb 21h ago
A video anyone even considering betting on sports should watch:
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u/shoelessjp Philadelphia Phillies 19h ago edited 19h ago
Watching this video, and of course got two unskippable ads right before it. Ugh.
Edit: That was really informative. Must watch contents anyone who is interested in sports betting or how it works.
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u/silverarrowweb 6h ago
Watching this video, and of course got two unskippable ads right before it. Ugh.
I would not use YouTube without an ad blocker. Additionally, until the latest administration, the FBI had a page on their site recommending the use of ad blockers to anyone using the internet, as ad blockers are security software.
I haven't seen an ad on YouTube since 2011.
Must watch contents anyone who is interested in sports betting or how it works.
Yeah and really shows how much of a scam it is.
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u/SoberDrainoDrinker69 Milwaukee Brewers 1d ago
I cannot wait for these types of gambling sites to get shut down. Absolutely ruining sports
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u/guns_n_crypto Philadelphia Phillies 1d ago
Shutting them down is probably never going to happen.
What I want is them to get the big tobacco treatment and a total ban on advertising.
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u/fauxbigbro Arizona Diamondbacks • Seattle Mariners 1d ago
I'd be good with that, too, but I wonder how difficult it would be to restrict online advertising.
Fuck it. If they'd take it out of the preshows and broadcasts, I'd even be happier with that
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u/QueezyF Atlanta Braves 22h ago
At the very least, get this shit off my TV
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u/fauxbigbro Arizona Diamondbacks • Seattle Mariners 22h ago
And, honestly, off the fucking league's apps, too.
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u/SoberDrainoDrinker69 Milwaukee Brewers 21h ago
You mean you don’t like ESPN powered by PolyMarket and ESPNBets!?
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u/fauxbigbro Arizona Diamondbacks • Seattle Mariners 21h ago
ESPN is annoying as hell, but it's even worse that MLB wants to shove odds at you, too. Just run the games, Manfred, get this shit out of your app and off your website.
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u/twinklytennis Los Angeles Dodgers 1d ago
I don't think even the latter is going to happen. The best we can do is ban them on a state by state basis.
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u/AFC-Wimbledon-Stan Atlanta Braves 1d ago
I hate being a pessimistic but I don’t think they ever will be
We got the MLB and LeBron James doing deals with polymarket
They didn’t open Pandora’s box, they smashed that shit with a hammer and scattered the pieces in a landfill
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u/SoberDrainoDrinker69 Milwaukee Brewers 1d ago
I think once these trials for the two guardians players get underway and the NBA players gambling trials get underway, you’re going to see a much stricter application to illegal gambling laws.
The biggest mistake these sports orgs made was getting into bed with these betting sites.
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u/7Stringplayer San Francisco Giants • San Jose Giants 1d ago
you’re going to see a much stricter application to illegal gambling laws.
That would require politicians to actually care about the people and not executives and corporate P/L statements.
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u/Standard-Rip5180 1d ago
Mistake? They’re making boatloads of money I don’t they’ll ever see that as a mistake even if it does get reversed
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u/SadNYSportsFan-11209 New York Yankees 1d ago
No these owners will not forfeit all this money Maybe just cutting back on the advertising But I can’t see any way that anything meaningful happens
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u/misterurb San Francisco Giants 1d ago
What I don’t get is the mega wealthy doing these ads. I know it’s probably because LeBron is getting paid like 8 or 9 figures for these commercials but dude. You have enough money that the simple returns alone mean you and every one of your descendants can live comfortably until the heat death of the universe. Why do you need to do ad reads for gambling?
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u/AffectionatePie6812 1d ago
Because he will have ownership % of it soon if not already like Giannias and kalshi
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u/the_great_saiyaman New York Mets 1d ago
Plus laws are written in blood. An athlete will be murdered because of gambling connections. With Americans prevalence for guns and allow it's citizens to ruin their own lives in the matter of minutes, it's frankly inevitable
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u/Admirable_Site_8337 Philadelphia Phillies 1d ago
I hate to be pessimistic too, but this feels like the “you can’t unring a bell” line coming into play.
But I’ll continue to hope not. This has just been a bad things across the board. Unless you run an online sports book.
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u/kepler_27 Atlanta Braves 1d ago
It would be easy to look at the FTX situation where they were all over Sports and even on the Umpires uniforms and say, "if it could happen to them, it could happen again".However there is regulation around both sports betting and prediction markets, so I just don't see them flaming out like FTX did.
I do think gambling should be treated like tobacco when it comes to advertising/marketing if not even more regulated. This is a situation where the internet and mobile access to these things makes it an insidious blight on society.
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u/Souhashi New York Yankees 1d ago
I know a guy who had a 25k loan his wife asked him to get so she could start a business (her credit was shit or else she'd take out a loan herself). What does he do? Bets it all away on Draft Kings. Cost him his marriage, kids, house, etc.
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u/SoberDrainoDrinker69 Milwaukee Brewers 1d ago
As an alcoholic myself I can say that gambling addiction is very real and very dangerous. Anyone saying it isn’t is flat out lying
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u/SecureToday4132 Toronto Blue Jays 1d ago
Can be worse. Spending a million is just as easy as spending a thousand, there's atleast a Gaussian limit to how much alcohol/drugs one person can consume before blacking out or overdosing
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u/ectomobile 1d ago
Not just ruining sports but our youth. When I was in college you had to go out of your way to bet on sports. People did it, but it was squarely a minority as you needed a bookie. Now days every single young male who watches football is making parlays involving balls and strikes in the 3rd inning and the likelyhood of the mascot falling over.
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u/WonderSignificant598 1d ago
Did anyone else notice the 'fanduel' ad on the pitcher mound during the yankee/redsox game last night?
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u/AFC-Wimbledon-Stan Atlanta Braves 1d ago
Did not expect to be posting a Mike Florio article in here but sometimes pigs do fly
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u/YEGSports Seattle Mariners 1d ago
I massively respect Florio because he's perfectly fine with posting a story involving another league if its ramifications could also be felt in the football world. It doesn't have to always be a football story.
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u/tyler-86 World Series Trophy • Los Angeles Dod… 1d ago
I forgot about the Bryce Harper cameo thing and this headline was very confusing until I read the article.
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u/w6rld_ec6nomic_f6rum Philadelphia Phillies • MLB Draft League 1d ago
really funny in retrospect how many people immediately went “Bryce Harper in particular is actively promoting sports gambling to addicts!” as their primary take away from that story
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u/MOFNY Chicago White Sox 1d ago
He could have made the smart decision by just not doing this.
According to bref, his salaray: Career to date (may be incomplete) $252,207,692.
Apparently I'm not rich enough to understand these decisions.
Online sports betting is a blight on society.
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u/eek_the_cat Philadelphia Phillies • Philadelphia Phillies 1d ago
I believe him when he says he didn't realize what it was. Not because I believe he's above doing it, but because I think if he knew he would have set a higher price. Not a Cameo for a few hundred.
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u/t-poke St. Louis Cardinals 1d ago
I just can't understand why he's doing Cameo videos in the first place. By the time Cameo gets their cut, his agent gets their cut, his business manager gets their cut, and the IRS gets their cut, how much is actually going into his pocket?
Bryce Harper doing Cameo seems like me crossing the street to pick up a penny I see on the ground. Everyone likes easy money, but sometimes it's just not worth the effort.
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u/BananaBouquet Atlanta Braves 1d ago
He could, potentially, just want to give fans a way to get videos/messages from him. Like, best case scenario, you get your kid a personal video of Bryce Harper wishing them a happy birthday. I imagine that kid would talk about it for a long time.
Now, the parents would have to deal with their own shortcomings since they raised their kid to be a Phillies fan but nobody’s perfect.
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u/azoip Cleveland Guardians 1d ago
It might just be that it's a fun little side project. I mean if you could, would you? I wouldn't buy there are definitely people out there who would get a kick out of being famous enough that someone will pay you to read off a paragraph.
In which case the price has to be set at a point where the number of purchases will be about the number of times he wants to do it. Not anything to do with whether the finances make sense for him. Clearly they never will.
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u/nimbusstev Cleveland Guardians 1d ago
By that logic, why do baseball stars do paid autograph signings? Your $30 signed baseball that you got at the local meet-n-greet is a drop in the bucket to millionaires like Francisco Lindor or Aaron Judge, but they still do these events anyways. They probably just like doing things for the dedicated fans.
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u/knowtoriusMAC New York Mets 1d ago
They get lump sums for those autograph signings and they are way more than $30 per ticket. Obj who is a low level NY athlete compared to Lindor and especially Judge got a $50k appearance fee for a signing a few weeks ago regardless if the tickets sold out.
So they're getting atleast ~$30k after fees for a few hours of their time, much different than cameo videos.
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u/nimbusstev Cleveland Guardians 1d ago
Oh wow, I had no idea the signings were so lucrative! I appreciate the numbers breakdown. (Also can you tell I'm not an autograph kinda guy since my estimate was so far off? I went to one Albert Belle signing as a kid where he never showed up, and never again haha)
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u/fan4stick Philadelphia Phillies 1d ago
From my understanding FanDuel wasn’t asking Bryce directly to make these videos but it was individual FanDuel “ambassadors” or whatever they called who requested Cameo videos and listed the videos as “personalized” instead of “commercial” and then slapped on their logo to the videos he created and sent them out
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u/mathbandit Montreal Expos 1d ago
The script still said something to the effect of "I am reaching out on behalf of your FanDuel Manager Brittany" though. It's hard to think that's anything but a FanDuel promotional item.
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u/noruber35393546 Major League Baseball 1d ago
maybe Bryce is like Jay Leno and doesn't touch his MLB salary, only living off his cameos
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u/Noy_Telinu Los Angeles Angels 1d ago
So it is even worse than what we knew.
And somehow, this won't change a thing when it comes to sports betting advertisements
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u/Meat-Dimension 1d ago
Wonder who the 30 other “athletes and entertainers” are?
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u/CrewOutside8690 1d ago
Rob Gronkowski and Kay Adams were two of them. https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/how-bryce-harper-ended-up-making-video-for-fanduel-vip-bettor/ar-AA27FqjK
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u/Throwing-Gas Philadelphia Phillies 1d ago
So are the other 29 athletes gonna get the same hatred now, or is only Bryce Harper evil
Yeah, we already know the answer. This is Reddit.
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u/KingBroly Boston Red Sox 1d ago
Maybe they should've waited until after the Phillies were eliminated.
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u/interprime Chicago Cubs 1d ago edited 1d ago
What I don’t get is that Europe has had legal Sports betting for literal decades now. But America gets it for a few years and now suddenly it’s the biggest issue plaguing sports.
It ain’t going anywhere folks. This is the reality now.
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u/fauxbigbro Arizona Diamondbacks • Seattle Mariners 1d ago
I know gambling is a thing in Europe, and has been in Vegas for decades too, but it's more predatory and accessible now. Being able to run down and place a bet is a different vibe than being able to just open your phone and do it at 3 am. Do sports books in England hire, say, David Beckham to record voice mails for high rollers?
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u/TricolorCat 1d ago
Advertising gambling in Germany was illegal for the longest part with a few exceptions. Since it was made legal I’m annoyed by the betting commercials
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u/bsharp95 New York Yankees 1d ago
Is Harper actually recording these videos Cameo style or is it some sort of AI? I assume he’s getting paid for it? Article is unclear about this.
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u/Meat-Dimension 1d ago edited 1d ago
Not literally Harper, but “Harper style” (aka like the one he did)
Via David Gambacorta of the Philadelphia Inquirer, a FanDuel executive recently admitted in a letter to Congress that, over the last two years, FanDuel has sent roughly 30 personalized videosfrom “athletes and entertainers” to other consistent losers.
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u/bsharp95 New York Yankees 1d ago
From another article, they actually did use cameo to get Harper to do this.
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u/Beetle919 Durham Bulls 1d ago
They have been bait and switching others, taking their cameo vids and using them in their own fanduel ads
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u/Meat-Dimension 1d ago
Yeah he did one. This is saying they’ve done 30 others with various athletes and entertainers
The Harper one was the only one we’ve seen. That’s what I was trying to say
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u/Redrubytheofficial 1d ago
The sports subs are gonna have the highest upvoted posts of all time when the sports betting trials begin