MLBPA supports banning players from promoting sportsbook VIP programs
The players' union said it supports new restrictions on athletes' interactions with sports gambling companies amid congressional scrutiny of a video of Bryce Harper.
The Major League Baseball Players Association said Monday that it supports prohibiting players from participating in personalized marketing campaigns for sportsbook VIP programs, amid congressional scrutiny of a video of Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper that a FanDuel employee sent to a customer who had a gambling addiction.
Jeffrey Perconte, MLBPA’s general counsel, wrote in a letter to U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) and U.S. Reps. Paul D. Tonko (D., N.Y.) and Valerie P. Foushee (D., N.C.), that the union would be willing to adopt this restriction as part of a new collective bargaining agreement that it is negotiating with Major League Baseball.
The three members of Congress had sent letters on Aug. 10 to MLB, the players’ union, and FanDuel, demanding that each take corrective action to address The Inquirer’s reporting on the personalized video Harper recorded and a FanDuel VIP host sent in 2024 to Terry Thompson, a Montgomery County resident who lost $1.5 million on sports wagers that he placed with FanDuel.
Thompson planned to die by suicide earlier this year rather than acknowledge to his family the scope of his losses, according to a lawsuit that the nonprofit Public Health Advocacy Institute filed in March on Thompson’s behalf against FanDuel and DraftKings, which had also allegedly provided him with VIP perks.
Harper has said that he recorded the message through the video service Cameo but didn’t know that FanDuel would utilize the 21-second video as a reward for an addicted gambler.
The Democratic lawmakers told FanDuel to end its VIP program, which they described as being predatory, and called on MLB and the MLBPA to prohibit players from performing promotional work for gambling entities.
That players aren’t prohibited from doing promotional work for gambling companies is a “systemic failure,” the lawmakers wrote, “rooted in the deep enmeshment between leagues, teams, and sports books.”
In his response, Perconte noted that the current collective bargaining agreement, which expires in December, allows players to appear in advertisements or make personal appearances for casinos, racetracks, or sportsbook companies, provided the ballplayers do not encourage betting on baseball.
“We believe the restrictions on endorsements and partnerships in our collectively bargained policies represents a good-faith effort to allow responsible betting-related promotional activity by teams and players,” Perconte wrote.
“That said, our current policies do not explicitly reference or otherwise address the types of ‘predatory VIP programs’ described in your Aug. 10 letter. The Association stands ready to make proposals to fill that gap.”
Since the U.S. Supreme Court voted in 2018 to give states the authority to enact their own sports betting laws, MLB and other professional sports leagues have entered into lucrative partnerships with sportsbook companies and prediction markets.
Perconte wrote that half the league’s 30 franchises have partnerships or sponsorships with sports betting operators, while the owners of three teams — the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, and Los Angeles Dodgers — are “seed investors in a newly announced prediction market futures trading platform called FutureSports.”
As part of collective bargaining negotiations, the players union has proposed lobbying with MLB to ban proposition bets and event contracts that are based on a player’s in-game performance, which the union said is linked to higher rates of problem gambling and bettors harassing players and their families.
“And while MLB has thus far rejected this proposal, we intend to continue pursuing it,” Perconte wrote.
Elected officials in Pennsylvania are separately planning legislation that would restrict or eliminate sportsbook VIP programs, and in-game microbets, an effort that Joe Maloney, the president of the Sports Betting Alliance — a national advocacy organization whose members include FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, bet365, and Fanatics — said the organization will oppose.
Pennsylvania’s Gaming Control Board, which regulates casinos, online gambling and sports wagering, has also said that it is reviewing the Harper video.
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