I know baseball and little else.
So, since I'm speaking little of baseball here, remember the source
To me, everybody should have a baseball card.
It could give a peek into what each of us have done with our lives, much as a baseball card does for players.
Anyway, because of my interest in baseball and fantasy baseball, in particular, some folks ask me about states taxing sites.
I don't know what to say except that fantasy baseball probably deserves it.
I know that's not a popular thing to say. Sure, states are grabbing as much money as possible from these sites.
These sites are balking because of a previous agreement that held that fantasy baseball was ok in every state in which it was sanctioned.
That agreement, however, came before DraftKings and FanDuel.
DraftKings and FanDuel were game changers.
DraftKings and FanDuel exploded onto the scene. The season long entities were championing both. Exclaiming that they were very good for the industry and that interest in fantasy sports could double, triple, or multiply even many times further.
They said these things aloud, while hoping to capture some of those customers also and have their season long game enhanced.
It didn't happen.
Mostly, the opposite happened, some season long players were enticed by the daily game more than the other way around
Making matters worse, DK and FD were getting so big for their britches that they started taking money from big corporations like ESPN and the NBA and all sorts of companies who wanted to capitalize on the fantasy business.
With all this incoming money, DK and FD flooded television and radio like Publishers Clearinghouse, making a fortune seem easy even for those who were imbecilic in sports knowledge.
All along, the season long companies were championing the new folks that this would bring to the industry. At no time, did these season long companies want to distinguish the difference between the daily game and the season long game. They wanted to ride the daily game coat tails. Fantasy was fantasy, whether daily or season long.
Then, the ads started getting the wrong attention. Folks started complaining that maybe the daily games were not run completely on the up and up.
Aunt Ruth was complaining that Nephew Billy had been caught up in the fantasy frenzy and lost all his money.
The agreement made for fantasy companies now broken. The word 'gambling' used prolifically.
There were rumors of folks within the walls of DK and FD manipulating the process in order to make a lot of dollars.
There were criticisms of players having thousands of teams in manipulating teams for sure wins.
And worse, politicians started hearing about all of these things.
Politicians stop some industries by taxing or sur-charging them.
With threats of these coming down the pike, the fantasy industry stood together to stem the tide. This was the last real chance of the season long game to distinguish itself from the daily game.
They didn't do it.
All for fantasy and fantasy as one.
They sided with DK and FD lawyers. Lawyers, who were NOT fighting for the industry, but only for their own interests.
Most poliiticians did what most politicians do. They listen and they act. By this time, the season long game was thought of as a mini-DK or FD. An entity that stood with DK and FD, but one without the clout.
In other words, they were now all lumped together.
And for the most part, we are still lumped together.
The season long game had MANY, MANY instances in which they could have differentiated itself from the daily game.
They chose not to.
They wanted, what they believed would be added interest in the industry and added money to their pockets.
I love the season long game. I do.
And, I wrote many, many years ago that the daily game may have an overall harmful effect to our hobby.
And I'm not that smart of a guy, like I said.
I was poo-poo'ed by many and hoped they were right.
They were not.
I believe that the season long game is being spanked through taxes and sur-charges for their backing of the daily gamers.
Or by politicians who have no interest in differentiating daily and season long games.
They stood side by side with the daily game in fighting for what was right.
In losing that battle, it is only now that they want to intimate how different the two games are.
I just have a hard time feeling sorry for the season long game now.
They made LARGE mistakes.
When fighting politicians, it's an uphill battle.
When fighting politicians with the daily game leading the charge and the season long game standing with them, it became a lose-lose scenario.
I applaud the efforts of Chad Schroeder in Nebraska and others who are taking up the season long charge vs. politicians.
In a way, they are trying to clean up the carnage that the season long game left by standing shoulder to shoulder with the daily game.
It is probably only through these grassroots involvement that fantasy can undo the damage done and is still being done.
I ask myself today, have DraftKings and FanDuel been good for the fantasy sports industry?
Without them, we would not have the flood of fantasy shows on our airwaves.
(It is up to you to determine in whether that is good or bad)
Without them, we would have millions less fantasy players.
(They are players of a different game and again, it is up to you to decide whether that is good or bad)
They brought fantasy sports to the forefront.
(personally, I hate that they did this. Everybody wants a hand in ANY industry brought to the forefront such as computers, cell phones, internet, blah, blah, blah. )
When ANY industry is brought to the forefront, it means more rules and more money paid out.
The answer to myself is that I believe our industry would still be the small tight-knit nerdish community we were before DK and FD came to town.
And I believe the season long game would have been a lot better off without them.
But the season long game entities didn't realize that till it was too late.
