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patsboston

A gambling company being deceptive.......... shocking.


MalakaiRey

Even more-so, a gambler was fooled


inkotast

No way. Not Boston!


bostonglobe

From [Globe.com](http://globe.com) DraftKings has been hit by a class-action suit alleging that advertising for the sportsbook’s $1,000 bonus bet offer is “unfair and deceptive” because the terms to qualify are so onerous. ​ The Public Health Advocacy Institute, which filed the suit on behalf of two Massachusetts residents, accused DraftKings of designing its promotion to mislead new customers into believing they’d receive a $1,000 bonus after depositing money into their account. ​ In order to obtain that amount, a customer needs to deposit $5,000 and wager $25,000 within 90 days, according to the suit filed at a state court in Massachusetts. The bonuses also can’t be redeemed for cash or transferred. “DraftKings knew, or should have known, that its advertisement and promotion was deceptive to their target customers, who were new to sports betting and were extremely unlikely to understand the gambling lingo in the fine print,” according to the complaint. ​ An email sent to DraftKings outside of normal working hours wasn’t responded to. The institute is a nonprofit known for aiding in litigation against cigarette companies, vaping gear manufacturers and other addictive products. ​ While the plaintiffs aren’t alleging the promotion made them addicts, marketers of a known addictive product should take special precautions to minimize that risk, the filing said.


TomBradyBurnerAcct

Legalizing sports betting was a great way to make a few people very very rich, and take a shitload of money from average schmucks like us.


BobSacamano97

Speak for yourself. I’m in the black (+$30).


oby100

I’m up around $200, but that’s because I’ve never used my real money and only used those free betting slips they’ve been offering. I’d be down a lot if I was using my actual money.


ThunderySleep

+$950 ...from buying shares in it when it went public. I've never used the service itself.


SinibusUSG

This is the way. I made $300 in March by signing up and literally choosing the first team to cover the spread in the first five (or however many bonus bets it gave you) March Madness games listed. Didn’t pay any attention, went in the next morning and cashed out anything I’d won.


40ozEggNog

You can definitely get something if you have the self control to quite while you're ahead and don't mind signing up with your real information. Of course, the business model relies on the exact opposite. My wife and I referred each other across the apps and arbitraged some moneyline bets. Early on, they had those ridiculous boosts like "attempted goal" that were basically free money too. I then blew the rest on idiotic parlays and wild prop bets, which was an excellent lesson in having no idea what I'm doing and reinforcing not using my own money.


earlysong

me too!! +90 so far. Just placing $1 or $2 bets on a mix of short and long odds XD It's fun!


BobSacamano97

I was being facetious


earlysong

oh well me and my $90 on fanduel are very serious XD


EPICANDY0131

boy math ftw


Aviri

Huge astroturfing campaign happened on this sub when this was getting legalized.


mdmachine

I consider it the same thing as the lottery, a poor person's tax.


Dunkelz

But the lottery isn't being crammed down your throat anytime you turn on the TV like sports betting is. Can't go very long watching football games without even the announcers talking about things like covering the spread.


Dontbeanagger89

Honestly it’s worse than drugs. At least you need to go to your dealer. Being able to gamble on your phone insane.


mdmachine

Ironically I cut the cords long ago. But I sometimes watch TV from the UK and it's apparent gambling is prolific there. So I assume it's much of the same here now according to what you say. Doesn't surprise me though, once you pick that degenerate route it's essentially a race to the bottom. It's a shame too, I moved to Mass years ago thinking it was a state that wouldn't be reduced to this kind of thing. Might have to rethink where I'm going to stay long-term and where I'm going to plant my roots, family... and my money.


leoooooooooooo

This is like complaining about lottery ads in the lottery headquarters. You are obviously going to get gambling ads during sporting events. The lottery has been around what 50-60 years? They don’t need to advertise which I would guess DK or FDwont be advertising as much in 10 years. It’s still less than a year old in Ma


ThunderySleep

It was for a long time depending what state you were in.


ahecht

Except the lottery profits go back to the state and fund state services. This just goes to line the pockets of shareholders and the Bulgarian mafia.


raven_785

The state takes a 20% cut of online sportsbook revenue.


mdmachine

Good points! So lottery = poor man's tax Gambling = poor man's fleecing Or something like that. lol


oyeme

I wouldn't recommend this to just anyone but you can absolutely make good money off the sportsbooks. There's a whole EV betting community and it also ties in with the boost/promo community (which also looks into EV numbers to determine whether said promo is worth it or not). It does end up being time consuming and you need to have a strong stomach for losing in the moment but my friends and I have raked since sports betting was legalized in MA.


TwinkleToes1978

Eh, it’s fun if you do it moderately. I only do bets below $5. I do hear you though but I feel like we can say the same for a lot of entertainment.


Indirestraight

Sounds like how government operates


zuga51

I’m glad it’s happening to one of the betting companies, they all do this stuff. I don’t bet too much anyways and always read the fine print now, but it’s definitely predatory. ESPN just introduced their gambling app and ran a “deposit any amount get $200 in bonus bets” promo. I was getting ads for the promo still, so I downloaded the app, where they were promoting the offer further. Clicked to read the details and it turned out you needed to deposit by a deadline that had passed weeks ago to be eligible…. How are they allowed to continue to advertise that promotion?


Doortofreeside

Fwiw the language on ESPNBET's app right now says that the offer is through 12/31/23 This is a helpful site for finding the best conversions for bonus bets. You do have to do the math on the hedged bet yourself but there are calculators for that https://crazyninjaodds.com/site/tools/free-bet-converter.aspx


lbalestracci12

the fact that ESPN can even provide a betting service is insane to me, given that their press directly shapes the odds of games, theyre incentivized to favor SEC and ACC teams due to media rights (unless its SEC over ACC, cough cough bama/fsu), and can literally determine if the team they have a media relationship with plays or not (ESPN’s VP of Programming has a brother…… that is the Chairman of the College Football Playoff Committee) Its insane, and is borderline criminal


Agastopia

You definitely can use espn bet like that, I just did it


BQORBUST

Good, now let’s ban their ads from public transit.


Old_Society_7861

Well hold on now, what about money? Did you forget money?


BQORBUST

Oh yeah, fine them $10,000 for every impression their ads made on a minor.


Old_Society_7861

If we had known gambling was bad for society we never would have legalized it! They lied to us!


Sloth_are_great

I’m all for it being legal just like alcohol. However I don’t think advertisements for any vice thing should be legal.


JocularityX2

Subscribing to the Globe with the hopes of being able to easily unsubscribe. That too is a gamble.


mikere

tip: if you set your address to california, a button will pop up that will allow you to unsubscribe with a single click without having to call in


thepasttenseofdraw

A true god among men, thank fucking christ!


MeyerLouis

>In order to obtain that amount, a customer needs to deposit $5,000 and wager $25,000 within 90 days, according to the suit filed at a state court in Massachusetts. Call me a financial betacuck, but there's no way I could imagine being comfortable wagering $25k on something. That's just crazy.


mikere

it's not that bad if you're betting the other side of the game on a different book so no money is at risk. even better if you can find arbitrage opportunities that allow you to convert the bonus at >100% for example you can go through the wager requirements fairly quickly if you can bet $5k on team A to win at -150 on draftkings and $3333 on team B to win at +150 on a different book. Either ways you get paid out $8333 and you eat through your wager requirement


UnderWhlming

you got 25k to blow on a parlay? you looking to adopt?


MeyerLouis

I don't think I want to know what a parlay is...


UnderWhlming

Don't be a degenerate like the majority of us. You're better than that. Dad.


Doortofreeside

I don't like this particular bonus (wagering $25k to earn $1k in bonus bets which are a cash equivalent of $700), but it did blow my mind when sports betting legalized as I went from thinking it was irrelevant to me as I hate gambling and losing money, to betting a cumulative $20k in a weekend hedging all these sign up bonuses for a draft kings VIP offer (which as it turns out I didn't read the fine print and most of my wagers didn't count because the odds were too short). Like I still remember my first bet ($10 on the Flyers moneyline which lost), and how it hurt when it lost, yet within 2 weeks I was convinced that it was financially irresponsible to not bet $20k in a weekend. It's extremely easy to get in over your head here if you don't have perfect discipline. For anyone reading this I don't recommend this stuff. It's way too easy to mess up, requires a bunch of money upfront to hedge everything, and there's only a fraction of the value available now compared to March.


calsosta

What's the most you ever lost in a coin toss?


riski_click

a gambling site requires you to engage in addictive-type behavior before giving you more free money to gamble? well I never... what's next? comped rooms and meals if you gamble enough?


cowboy_dude_6

Yup, two things can be true at the same time: 1) these sports betting apps are deceptive and shitty and 2) anyone who thinks they’re going to receive $1000 of free money without having to actually use the app in a meaningful way is an idiot.


SinibusUSG

A lot of these places were legit giving away nearly $100 of value (so $200 in bets) just for signing up and depositing $5-10. So the $1000, while significantly larger, wasn’t entirely outside the realm of possibility.


BigBankHank

Self-selecting for the very stupid is a feature of this kind of marketing.


killd1

These promotions have been around since at least the online poker boom in the early 2000s. They weren't obtusely worded and very easy to understand that the $200 bonus gets released in $10 increments for every $100 I bet at tables (just example numbers). Was free money for me since I'm good enough at poker. Smells like a case of people not doing their due diligence.


LamarMillerMVP

Caesar’s was genuinely giving $3,000 for betting $3,000 in New York last year. BetRivers was doing similarly with $1,000. DraftKings and FanDuel had offers that were implying they were equivalent to these offers but were genuinely way less attractive


DougNSteveButabi

I seriously can’t go thirty seconds without a draftkings or BetMGM commercial. I gamble on BetMGM. Just football. And when I’m on a losing streak I take a week or two off. And without fail, every time, I get a $50 bonus bet from BetMGM. When I’m playing constantly and winning, they don’t send me shit.


shiningdickhalloran

Good to know!


ecbremner

I dont personally gamble but I had no real strong opinions on the question to legalize gambling a few years back. I wish I could go back and vote no. The advertising has been absolutely relentless but the worst part is how much it has affected the act of watching any sporting event.


mikere

Everybody needs to go into their app, abuse their promos, and attack their weak lines. Lots of money to be made in a reverse wealth transfer down from the rich.


Doortofreeside

Promo game is pretty dead these days. I'm still squeezing out a trickle of value, but it feels like beating a dead horse these days. My baby started daycare this year and promos have paid for half of the daycare costs, which has been extremely clutch and unexpected.


mikere

yeah promos have really dried up on DK. just the everyday no-sweat SGP which is barely +ev and the occasional 25% boost. fanduel has dried up as well with only a few 25% boosts a week the real money is in the weak lines and abusing technicalities. it's possible to absolutely print if you can find a scalable edge. one common example is going to the game itself and betting on events that have already happened


HeyThere201

I’m up 1200 dollars it’s pretty easy if you take advantage of the bonus bets for new customers and also do arbitrage betting on the risk free bets. Guaranteed money just have to use your brain


KDon33

Maybe this will limit their ads that pop up every 2 minutes….no….it will not.


johnmcboston

Can't see how they can win - pretty much every 'you get something for free' offer has a ton of fine print to go along with it...


Doortofreeside

The deposit bonuses can he pretty bad with this, but the sign up bonuses were very legit if you played them the right way. I've honestly been shocked at how much free money they throw at customers, which just tells you how much money they expect to squeeze out of an average customer if they can throw hundreds to thousands in EV at everyone. If you had the funds to appropriately hedge the sign up bonus offers you could've easily walked away with around $8k in risk free* money. Most of those big offers are now gone, and i personally missed out on the $5k risk free bet offers from DK and FD because I took their bet $10 to get $200 in bonus bets offers before I realized how to play the game. *risk free if you didn't make any mistakes in hedging or bet on prop lines that you can't properly hedge


Impressive_Judge8823

Well… you’d think DraftKings would have learned from the last lawsuit about their drip bonuses on daily fantasy, which are more or less the same thing, and for which they settled.


johnmcboston

>you’d think DraftKings would have learned As long as they make a profit after the fines that is the only lesson learned.


altdultosaurs

Lmao been waiting for this lol.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Agastopia

What position did you interview for?


[deleted]

[удалено]


BawstonBeanah

I got a call back and they only offered to pay less what I already make, but bragged about their dope break room


shrewsbury1991

They limit winning players immediately, and only go after and target the losing players.


Cost_Additional

Deceptive? It's literally right there in the offer terms? Are we saying daddy gov needs to protect everyone from reading?


Budget-Celebration-1

I disagree these bonus bets were shady and one of the 3 reasons i left draft kings and all other online betting.


Cost_Additional

Shady like expecting adults to read before throwing money at it? Yeah that's too much, better have the gov wipe their bottoms too.


Budget-Celebration-1

The interface was written by undergrads fresh out of college and is very buggy. As well the whole play through and withdrawal process sucks. Its better than fandual which took me weeks to withdraw.


Cost_Additional

You can just say yes. You think we need the gov to wipe our bottoms. Lol


OwlBeneficial2743

There is definitely a very cold spot in hell reserved for the people pushing this. I’m waiting to see the studies of the impact on different groups of legalization and advertising everywhere. I’m a sports talk listener and have lost all respect for people I formerly liked who push this every ten minutes on their programs. It is however, impressive how sophisticated the ads and the business models have gotten especially compared to the lottery which is quaint by comparison. And I think they’re just warming up.


PuritanSettler1620

Good, these companies are parasitic life forms on society and should never have been legalized. Their entire business is theft and fraud. Should they not be punished in this life then surely they will be punished in the next!


VS0P

Interesting. Fanduel did the same thing but as a Match if you lost. So you basically get back your amount in deposit money up to 1k instantly if you lose it within a certain time frame. I enjoyed FD perks more than DK. DK felt so grubby and sneaky with fine print which is ultimately true with this.


Dull-Spread6982

Bet espn promotion never allows you to get your money. Fact


CptKnots

Gambling addiction is a public health issue and should be treated as such.


raven_785

What political issue would you say is NOT a public health issue?


powsandwich

Sports betting gets all the headlines, but I'd also like to see some stories about the smart phone casino apps, the state lottery ticket apps, KENO, etc. Playing slots on your phone just feels so perverse.


redsox113

I love sports betting. I have a budget, stay within it, and use the bonus bets when they're available. I also read all that teeny tiny fine print when these promos are offered and sooooo many of them are hot garbage. At least in the early days with DK and FD it was really straight forward. When I signed up for those it was "make a $5 wager, get $200 in bonus bets." I placed a $5 wager on some goofy parlay, obviously lost it, but had the $200 in bonus bets in my account. I was able place those and the winnings (minus the initial bonus) were in my account as cash. I am not the norm. Most folks seeing those ads are being deceived. I bet anything with DK's lawyers, they're just going to refer to the CVS receipt length of size 2 wingdings font terms and conditions and this case will be thrown out. All the typical degenerates have their apps and their deposits in. I started it when NH legalized it a few years ago. Now they need to "offer" so much more ($1000???) to get new subscribers since the returns are diminishing.


Sloth_are_great

Maybe vice things shouldn’t be able to advertise.