🔪 DraftKings Secret Plan To Destory Underdog

If you’re here for the free stuff, welcome - we do this every week. If you’re now just finding out about the free stuff, you might want to read until the very end…

Here are today’s stories:

🗞 The Big Story: DraftKings Plan to Destroy Its Own Industry

📉 Biggest Loser: WNBA Expansion is Failing

🏆 Winner’s Circle: Content Creator Starter Pack

⬇️ Listen: ESPN Bet has been live for 3 days and it is already facing controversy, Jake and I discuss why:

🗞 The Big Story

DraftKings and FanDuel are trying to end the daily fantasy sports industry.

The very industry that they helped create in 2006 when they lobbied Congress to create a carveout to protect daily fantasy sports (DFS) in a bill about Port Security.

But why?

Early Domination: DraftKings and FanDuel quickly gained billion-dollar valuations and captured a combined 95% of the total DFS market soon after it was codified in law.

Their bread and butter were weekly line-up contests where players would compete against each other by drafting a new line-up every week to win a pool of money.

A format that was specifically designed to fit neatly into the rules DraftKings and FanDuel lobbied for:

1. Games must be based on cumulative statistics

2. Entries must involve players from more than one team

3. Games must be based on skill and not luck

Repeal of PAPSA: In 2018, the United States Supreme Court Struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 which allowed states to start creating their own laws around sports betting.

By 2020, nine states had legalized sports betting with dozens more soon to follow, and DraftKings and FanDuel switched their focus to capture as much of that new market as possible.

Left Behind: Even though sports betting is projected to be a much bigger business than DFS by the end of the decade, there are still millions of people today who aren’t able to legally sports bet from their phone.

And all these people were left with were DFS games from DraftKings and FanDuel that hadn’t been improved upon for over a decade, which left a massive opportunity for a brand new type of daily fantasy sports game.

Underdog, PrizePicks, and Sleeper Emerge: Pick ‘Em competitions, which have risen to prominence in the past few years, look and feel almost exactly like sports betting.

But because of clever maneuvering within the three conditions DraftKings and FanDuel helped set in ‘06, these games are completely legal.

Or at least they were until DraftKings and FanDuel started lobbying again to change the rules they helped write.

I break down the entire battle for the future of this multi-billion dollar industry in my newest YouTube video, dropping today at 5 PM CT!

I’m really proud of the work that went into researching and producing this one, so I hope you check it out!

📉 Biggest Loser

WNBA expansion is already failing, and it’s all over a team name.

Background: In early October, the league announced it would be putting a 13th team in San Fransisco, and many insiders believed that another expansion team would be announced at the end of the month in Portland.

Reverse Course: Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, who had previously called Portland “an ideal destination for a WNBA franchise” suddenly backtracked on her plans to put a team in the city in a letter to Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, citing planned renovations to the Moda Center.

There’s just one issue:

Those renovations have been in the works for years, which made the WNBA’s excuse hard to believe.

What Really Happened: The Oregonian sports columnist, Bill Oram, explains how the real fallout happened because of a rift between the league and the team’s prospective owner:

• Kirk Brown, the co-founder of ZoomInfo, was set to put up the $50 million expansion fee to start the team

• But just a few days before the team was set to be announced on October 26, Kirk Brown pulled his funding

• Reports cite differences he had with the WNBA, which included the branding of the team

Apparently, the name he liked, Rose City Royalty, was getting significant pushback from the league because of “a connotation the WNBA didn’t want to get behind.”

Which is likely in reference to the fact that roses are associated online with Socialist groups.

What’s Next: The WNBA was left without an owner for its new team just days before they were set to announce it and now the excuse they’ve used for why Portland can’t have a team puts them in a corner, since renovations to the Moda Center will be happening regardless.

Let’s just say Portland might not be getting a WNBA team for a while.

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🏆 Winner’s Circle

At the risk of being too self-promotional in this week’s edition, I want to give you something for free.

In fact, I want to give you four things for free to help you become a better sports content creator:

• USB Microphone and Ring Light

• Portable LED Light

• Wireless, Noise Cancelling Headphones

• $100 Adobe Gift Card

All you have to do to enter is subscribe (for free) to this newsletter, and if you’re already subscribed then you’re already entered!

But for anyone who wants more entries, just use the link below to share the newsletter with a friend.

It’s a custom, trackable link and for every person whom you refer, you get one additional entry!

I’ll announce the winner at the end of next week’s newsletter.

⏱ In Other News

• A bettor turned $500K into $5.5M from a single Texans game.

• The Pac-12 is now being run by just two schools.

• This is the most hilarious plaque of all time.

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👋 I have some really big personal news I’m excited to share next week. In fact, by the time you’re reading this, it’s probably already happened.

See you next Friday!