By JONAS MILLER
Features Editor
Since the beginning of the NFL season a few weeks ago, I’ve spent my Sundays glued to the television screen, screaming and cursing at the receiver or running back who’s underperforming that particular afternoon. This has been a usual September through January activity for as long as I can remember, whether I’ve been home or at school, but lately, it’s been different.
Week two of the season was coming up, and I was setting my Fantasy Football roster while watching the pre-game show for the Thursday night game. A commercial came on that I’m almost positive everyone has seen at least once over the last few months, for Draft Kings one-week fantasy football. Although I’d seen the commercial what felt like 100 times at that point, my inner curiosity got the best of me, and I found myself on their website within the minute.
This was mistake number one.
Once on the website, I immediately noticed that it wasn’t just fantasy football that they offered. Basketball, baseball, and even golf are some of the other options. Golf? Really? I clicked on the football tab, and before I knew it I had deposited 25 smackaroos.
Mistake number two.
After about half an hour of looking through different leagues and messing with my lineups for that week, I was entered into a half dozen different contests. Having bet almost all of the 25 dollars I originally deposited, I felt excited at the idea of winning it all, and hopefully more, back.
Fast forward to the following Tuesday morning. Not only had I won back my money, my account had 28 dollars in it, meaning I did it. I beat the system. Whoever said the house always wins clearly hadn’t met me. I was on top of the world. I was proud, because I had created successful teams; I was relieved, because I hadn’t lost any money; and I was excited, because winning back all of my money meant my one week fantasy sports career hadn’t come to an embarrassing end before it even started.
It was at that moment that I made mistake number three.
I immediately entered a handful of new contests for the upcoming weekend of football, handing back all 25 and three dollars I had just praised myself for winning.
Looking back, I realize it was necessary step. You have to screw up before you can take measures to make sure you don’t screw up again.
It is at this point that I will explain why this story is relevant, and why I hope you will learn something from reading this.
This past week, DraftKings and its equally successful competitor FanDuel were put under heavy scrutiny, as the FBI and the Justice Department launched investigations into both companies. This comes after high-ranking employees of the companies repeatedly won large amounts of money on both websites.
Even to the average citizen, who may or may not know anything about football, this looks suspicious.
An employee works at Company X. This employee enters a contest sponsored by Company Y. Companies X and Y both compete for customers in the same business. The employee wins 350,000 dollars on rival Company Y’s website. Questions arise.
At their core, one-week fantasy sports websites are, and always will be, gambling. Although you’ll never see them or their employees admit that.
As it says on their website, “Playing on DraftKings is 100% legal in the US.” I put special emphasis on the first word in that sentence, because it could very easily be replaced with “Gambling.”
For those of you that are unfamiliar with how these kinds of websites work, I will briefly lay it out for you.
On DraftKings, you deposit money and then use that money to enter any number of leagues within the website. A league (or contest) can cost anywhere from one dollar to 5,000 bucks to enter. Obviously the more money it costs to enter, the more money there will be available to win.
Once entered into a contest, you choose your lineup. We will use football as an example, because it is the easiest to explain.
You are allotted 50,000 “dollars” (not really money) to choose your lineup. Each player, depending on their ability and how well they’ve been playing, costs a certain amount. Tom Brady, who I hope most of you have heard of, usually costs around $8,000 each week, making him one of the most expensive players on the website.
Most leagues require you to draft one quarterback, two running backs, three receivers, one tight end, one flex player (can be receiver, or running back), and one team defense. That’s nine positions that need to be filled, each of which costs anywhere from $3,000 to $9,000, depending on how good the players you choose are. You have $50,000 dollars TOTAL for all nine positions. I’ll let you do the math.
If at the end of the week, your fantasy team has accumulated more points than the opposing teams, however many of them there are, you win money! Oh boy, nothing but good fun, right?
Until you realize that you aren’t having fun, because you’re sitting in a virtual casino, and the dealer is smiling as you toss the money you just won right back in their face. Gambling is the Hunger Games in a darker, more twisted form.
“May the odds be ever in your favor, even though statistically, they never will be.” (Casino owners everywhere laugh maniacally while petting their pure white cats in oversized leather chairs.)
Although sports have a long history of gambling scandals, the soon to be front-page story that is one-week fantasy sports has only been around since the mid-2000’s.
Clearly picking up more and more steam by the day, the idea that any PR is good PR seems to be coming into the equation.
Yes, advertising for DraftKings and FanDuel is running rampant on every TV and radio station, and yes, more and more people, including myself up until recently, have been hopping on the fantasy wagon, but this may not be a good thing.
When you’re so “successful” that you attract the attention on the FBI, you might want to reconsider a few things.
So, the next time you see a commercial for FanDuel, or DraftKings, I challenge you to change the channel. Don’t give them the attention they think they deserve.
“Over 75 million dollars in prizes guaranteed!”
Nothing in life is guaranteed, especially not gambling.
