Sunday, July 26, 2015

Major League Baseball "an investor in the “daily fantasy sports” website DraftKings".

I received a comment on this post:

Frank Robinson, Bruce Bochy, Joe Torre decline to support Pete Rose. Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Frank RobinsonBruce Bochy and Joe Torre were all asked about Pete Rose yesterday afternoon.  I saw it on the MLB Network.

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reader comment:

Pete Rose has always seemed like a riddle to be solved. Has the "death penalty" on betting kept baseball out of gambling scandals that seemed to plague much of its early history? Do the lavish salaries of today help alleviate worries of a 21st century gambling problem in baseball? What's your take on a certain daily fantasy company that advertises heavily on the official network and even has daily picks endorsed by representatives of MLB? Did Pete Rose simply choose the wrong time and medium to fuel his habits outside of baseball? If he made $50 million at the time he played, would he have been the player or person he was during and after his baseball playing days? There are lots of questions and only few answers, most received with multiple versions, contexts, and times.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015 at 10:43:00 AM EDT

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I don't know much about fantasy baseball or rotisserie baseball.  But I have noticed people who work on the MLB Network making picks of the day, which I generally understood to be particular active players who they predict will perform well in games that day.  These predictors are providing professional advice to people who are trying to make money by playing fantasy baseball sponsored through the official major league website: mlb.com

On the face of it the practice seems appalling.  Are active players allowed to play fantasy baseball?  Are active players allowed to provide advice on fantasy baseball?

A company named Draft Kings is listed as an official partner of MLB:

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/fantasy/?tcid=nav_mlb_fantasy&y=2015

Then there's this:

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/fantasy/fb/info/index.jsp

MLB.COM Fantasy Baseball 2015

Fantasy Baseball made easy
Smaller rosters, head-to-head weekly match ups
Video highlights of your players
Score points for every hit, homer, win and more
All league champions compete in October to win $5,000
Free to play, sign up today

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4/08/2015 @ 9:53AM
Legal Challenges Of Major League Baseball's New 'Daily Fantasy Sports' Partnership With DraftKings Forbes

Marc Edelman, Contributor

(Author’s disclosure:  The author consults for a fantasy sports provider that is in current litigation against DraftKings based on a contractual dispute over a revenue sharing agreement).

Last Friday, Major League Baseball announced that it has become an investor in the “daily fantasy sports” website DraftKings — ending a nearly a 95 year period during which Major League Baseball opposed anything even roughly associated with sports gambling...

7.  Does the MLB/DraftKings partnership increase the possibility of DraftKings games being fixed?  The odds of Major League Baseball involvement in DraftKings leading to game fixes seems, on its surface, remote.  Yet, the proliferation of these games will lead to increased demand for “insider information” on all topics, including to undisclosed injuries and player family emergencies, facility emergencies, and player suspensions.  Major League Baseball will still needs for its lawyers to craft reasonable policies about owner and employee participation in daily fantasy sports contests, as well as dissemination of information that could impact contest results.  The league will also need to develop a means of enforcement that would be accepted by the Major League Baseball Players Association in collective bargaining.
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Say what? Major League Baseball "has become an investor in the “daily fantasy sports” website DraftKings"? Holy Kennesaw Mountain!

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