For me, daily fantasy sports are dead.
The onslaught of TV commercials initially piqued my interest and lured me into opening an account, but my experience with the product left me feeling like a rube. That’s why when daily fantasy sports like Fan Duel and Draft Kings were banned from operating in Nevada where I live, I could not have cared less. They did me a favor when they pulled the plug.
Until DFS are regulated by someone other than themselves, I want no part of it.
Whether it’s considered a game of chance or a game of skill, the industry needs gaming-level oversight. The kind of regulation and standards sports betting has in Nevada. Without it, it’s going to continue to feel like a sketchy backroom poker game where the sharks always win and the chum are diced up and thrown overboard without hesitation.
The revelation that DFS employees were raking in enormous jackpots by scrubbing the data bases and positioning themselves for almost guaranteed paydays was more than enough to convince me there’s better ways to throw my money away. But there were little things that would never have occurred with regulatory oversight that irked me almost as much.
First off, the lure Fan Duel threw out was that they would “match my deposit up to $200.” That’s what the ads say, so I expected my $50 deposit to grow to $100 immediately. But that’s not what happened. The “match” instead occurs over time and is tied to the amount wagered, er, played. With regulation, there’s no way they could make a claim as backloaded with stipulations as that one.
The next oddity I encountered was when I made may first play on an otherwise ordinary day in Major League Baseball. I selected a team that included a starting pitcher who was to take the mound in Washington D.C. that day. The game was washed out by rain. And so was, much to my amazement, my play that day. I assumed that my play would be considered a no-contest since one of my players wasn’t allowed to pitch because of weather. But instead the game went on, and my team compiled a score that did not include points from a starting pitcher. Customer service said I should have monitored the weather reports. I say they should not force me to be a weatherman and instead do the obvious and void the play. That’s what Nevada would have done.
Not related to regulation but equally disturbing to me with DFS is that I also came to the realization that my single play being thrown into a pool of pros utilizing sophisticated software and algorithms to place multiple plays that mathematically eliminate me before the first kickoff, is never going to result in a win.
Why would I play a game I can’t win? I won’t. Because daily fantasy sports are dead to me.