(*) MASTER NOTES: The ongoing battle
Jun 27 2014
The battle never ends.
For the first two decades of fantasy, Major League Baseball would not recognize us as a legitimate market. They considered fantasy baseball too close to gambling, and after all they went though with Pete Rose, there was no way they could be associated with anything that even smelled of gambling.
We've fought hard to separate ourselves from that perception. In 2006, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act included a special carve-out that specifically defined us as a skill-based activity and not gambling.
The NFL got it; heck, they embraced fantasy years before Congress got involved. And fantasy football has exploded over the past decade. There is such a synergy now that the San Francisco 49ers are building a fantasy football lounge in their new stadium. It will be big enough to seat 1600 people.
They get it.
Over the past decade, MLB has relented somewhat, slowly allowing fantasy into their peripheral vision, but conditionally. We were welcome if we brought in money. We were never a partner, only a revenue source. In fact, they tried to make it illegal for fantasy baseball companies to use player names in our games without exorbitant licensing fees, and CDM Sports had to take the battle to several courts before MLB was shot down.
One would think they'd get it by now.
But Pete Rose is back, and he is like Kryptonite.
For me personally, I'm not the biggest Rose fan, but I am able to separate his on-field achievements from his off-field transgressions. I think it is ridiculous that he is barred from an institution that celebrates on-field achievement. But that's just me.
Rose continues to combat a lifetime ban that was set down 25 years ago, and gain reinstatement to the sport in which he holds records. He's been trying to clean up his image.
Granted, he's probably not doing himself any favors by spending his days signing autographs for cash in... Las Vegas. That might not smell great, but it's completely legal. Heck, if MLB really had an issue with the entity of Las Vegas, they wouldn't put a minor league club there and keep it on the list of potential expansion cities.
But here's the kicker...
Rose has now become an investor in a fantasy sports company. Sportsbeep runs daily fantasy games; Rose is trying to help them raise half a million dollars for a new app.
Rose said, "There are 50 million people in this country who play fantasy sports. It's not like some kind of illegal gambling."
Well... there are actually 41 million in the US and Canada combined, but what's another 9 million, more or less?
Bob Nightengale of USA Today wrote about this and characterized Rose's latest venture as "raising eyebrows." He wrote that this "won't earn much sympathy from Bud Selig."
Hmmm. Why?
Fantasy sports are completely legal. Despite any appearance otherwise, daily fantasy sports meet the conditions set down for legal fantasy play. So why is Rose's involvement raising eyebrows?
Is it because anything he touches has to be viewed with skepticism?
I think, to MLB, the equation is "Rose = gambling," and anything even remotely associated with him has to be viewed dubiously. Maybe this becomes just one more way that MLB can justifiably keep a safe distance from fantasy sports.
It took three decades for MLB to even say the word "partner" when it came to the players union. I suspect it might take just as long for them to see fantasy leaguers as anything other than misguided opportunists who bastardize the Grand Old Game. So they'll continue to treat us with benign tolerance... just so long as we keep sending them money.
And that is one more reason why MLB will always be behind the NFL in progressive thinking.
Sad for all of us who love the Grand Old Game, and moreso for those of us who need fantasy sports to help us stay engaged.
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