[Brock Landers]

'Philadelphia Inquirer' Web Site Launches 'Fantasy' Sports Betting that Pays Real Money

By EDITOR & PUBLISHER Staff

Published: April 09, 2010

CHICAGO The Philadelphia Inquirer's Web site, Philly.com, has become the first newspaper to offer online sports betting in the United States.

In a partnership with FanDuel, a British online betting company, visitors to Philly.com Instant Fantasy Gamescan play and win in one-day online fantasy sports games that pay off in real money.

Bettors pick a team from players in scheduled Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association or National Hockey League games that day. If their team wins the fantasy contest, Philly.com says, there are "instant cash prizes -- win tonight!"

Users pay a $5 entry fee for each game and can win as much as $90 a game.

Online gambling is illegal in the United States, but there is an exception for fantasy sports. The difference in the FanDuel partnership is that the fantasy team, rather than performing over the season of a sport, can be assembled for just a single day.

"Thanks to the fantasy sports carve out in the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act, these instant fantasy games are legal in the U.S. -- something that the FanDuel team has been very careful to adhere to," FanDuel said in its announcement of the partnership. "FanDuel and its partners generate revenue from taking a commission on each game."

FanDuel said "Philly.com is proving to be a true pioneer by becoming the first online news publication to use the power of daily fantasy sports games to open up a new revenue frontier."

"With the much publicized downturn in advertising revenues, could these games, at least in part, save the newspaper industry?" the press release asked.

According to FanDuel, U.K. newspapers are generating "millions of dollars in online revenue" from betting and paid games. With sports betting legal in Britain, newspapers are able to offer more lucrative betting possibilities.

FanDuel claims some players are winning more than $16,000 in a month.

[Brock Landers]

Anyone hear about this/participate??

[bruceBRUCEbruce]

sounds like an easy way to lose money.

but personally, I despise fantasy sports in general.

[rm18]

i will try this need to figure out way to get money on first

[Brock Landers]

surprising this hasn't gotten more pub

[jjgold]

Fantasy Sports is for failed bettors and non competitors

[Brock Landers]

Fantasy Sports is for failed bettors and non competitors

not when there is money involved, JJ lets get a report on this.

[rm18]

you got to lay -125 each head to head matchup so have to hit at a high clip

[Brock Landers]

you got to lay -125 each head to head matchup so have to hit at a high clip

surprised as all hell this is "legal"

[rm18]

I think I will put $100 on but probably won't get to it until Tuesday or Wednesday

[minet123]

I still owe the Inquirer from my paper route when I was 12
Kept the Collection money to buy weed and payoff my wagers on Eagles
Opps another one for my 9th

[mikemca]

Sounds exactlt the same as Snapdraft on Fanball dot com except their buy ins range from 20 cents to like 200 bucks

[lesleye]

Hey guys, I'm founder of FanDuel and thought I'd drop by to say hi. Snapdraft is a daily/instant fantasy game like FanDuel except they take double the commission we do. If you guys have any questions, just drop me a mail lesley at fanduel dot com.

Oh, and we paid the legal fees, so we know for sure that it's legal!

Lesley.

[Brock Landers]

Hey guys, I'm founder of FanDuel and thought I'd drop by to say hi. Snapdraft is a daily/instant fantasy game like FanDuel except they take double the commission we do. If you guys have any questions, just drop me a mail lesley at fanduel dot com. Oh, and we paid the legal fees, so we know for sure that it's legal! Lesley.

good stuff Leleye, fill us all in on how it works.

You got the right crowd here.

[lesleye]

good stuff Leleye, fill us all in on how it works. You got the right crowd here.

Hey Brock - it's real simple, it's just like regular season baseball (or football, basketball, hockey) but your team is only valid for one day only. It's one-night stand fantasy sports!

Seriously, we've made it as simple as possible to join up, you draft your team from today's players (or actually tomorrow now!) and go head-to-head with an opponent of your choice (or we can choose for you). You get live stats and game entry starts at $5, goes up to $50 right now. We take 10% of the entry fee, the winner wins the rest of the pot.

Give it a shot and let me know what you think.

[rm18]

I don't see any discount on fanduel.com over the first site. It is -125 on both

[lesleye]

It's only -125 on Snapdraft on their $100 games I believe.

[rm18]

I got confused I thought you meant fanduel was cheaper than the philly site you guys power, was not talking about fanball

[ryanspeer2001]

I will do this tomorrow if I can easily deposit/withdrawal and post my results.

[ttwarrior1]

im a fantasy fanatic and not sure i like this, you mean i choose my opponent and if i win, i win 5 bucks if i deposit 5 bucks?

[rm18]

im a fantasy fanatic and not sure i like this, you mean i choose my opponent and if i win, i win 5 bucks if i deposit 5 bucks?

You bet 5 to win 4. I think I might try this out today to try to gauge how tough the competition is.

[Bill Dozer]

It would be cool but I'll be surprised if it is offered in the US for long. It reminds me of Betcha.com and AllSportsMarket. They also cited carve outs. If the US was going to allow any game with a vig, fantasy or not, Yahoo or ESPN would be selling it. Their lawyers told them no.

[lesleye]

I got confused I thought you meant fanduel was cheaper than the philly site you guys power, was not talking about fanball

Oh right, no they're exactly the same.

[lesleye]

It would be cool but I'll be surprised if it is offered in the US for long. It reminds me of Betcha.com and AllSportsMarket. They also cited carve outs. If the US was going to allow any game with a vig, fantasy or not, Yahoo or ESPN would be selling it. Their lawyers told them no.

It would be cool but I'll be surprised if it is offered in the US for long. It reminds me of Betcha.com and AllSportsMarket. They also cited carve outs. If the US was going to allow any game with a vig, fantasy or not, Yahoo or ESPN would be selling it. Their lawyers told them no.

Hey Bill

It's an interesting point and worth noting. However, the daily draft format has already been around for over 3 years, and Snapdraft is ultimately owned by NBC, so there are some big players in the market already. In that respect, and because it's pure fantasy sports, it's very different to the two sites you quote. Neither ESPN nor Yahoo offer paid fantasy sports games, they made the decision to go free, so introducing a real money daily draft style game doesn't really fit with their strategy I guess.

[Brock Landers]

Hey Bill It's an interesting point and worth noting. However, the daily draft format has already been around for over 3 years, and Snapdraft is ultimately owned by NBC, so there are some big players in the market already. In that respect, and because it's pure fantasy sports, it's very different to the two sites you quote. Neither ESPN nor Yahoo offer paid fantasy sports games, they made the decision to go free, so introducing a real money daily draft style game doesn't really fit with their strategy I guess.

[ehp6737]

I still owe the Inquirer from my paper route when I was 12
Kept the Collection money to buy weed and payoff my wagers on Eagles
Opps another one for my 9th

[Brock Landers]

Looks pretty fukking cool. Seems like it can give the SBR book a run for its money in the sense this is REAL cash here...and sanctioned by the authorities none the less.

[ryanspeer2001]

Brock were you able to view my game yet? 'Cause for me it says private for x amount of hours...I guess not to give away the teams.

[LATINOSERIO]

This sounds pretty good. Goodluck ryan hopefully the competition sucks

[GamblingMike]

Not a fantasy sports person but will give it a try, sounds really good!

[Brock Landers]

Brock were you able to view my game yet? 'Cause for me it says private for x amount of hours...I guess not to give away the teams.

i didn't really know where to look/what to look for

[rm18]

salary cap game seems like a better game than draft. Seems like going to be tough to win if it is #1 vs. #2 at every positiion

[rm18]

Looks like I am going to lose money at baseball i started scherzer and everyone else took wainwright

I think my basketball team is going to be unbeatable I took:

Tyreke Evans
Lou Williams
Joe Johnson
Rudy Fernandez
Kevin Durant
Tayshaun Prince
David Lee
Kenyon Martin
Dwight Howard

[ryanspeer2001]

good luck tonight rm18.

[Brock Landers]

this looks fukking cool!