The first thing John Oliver wants you to know about daily fantasy sports is that it isn't at all like your office's NCAA tournament bracket pool. The second thing, he said on Sunday's Last Week Tonight, is that one reason you see DraftKings and FanDuel ads on TV every 90 seconds is that major TV networks — including HBO's parent, Time Warner — have financial stakes in the companies, and the NFL and MLB have sponsorship deals with them. Also, they're addictive — "daily fantasy sports combine everything dudes love: Sports, money, and a lack of commitment," he said — and they are being shut down in some states because they are essentially unregulated gambling.
The daily fantasy sites go out of their way to argue that they're (legal) games of skill, not (illegal) games of chance, but everything they do points to gambling, including sponsoring poker tournaments. "They're basically saying, 'If you love poker, you'll love DraftKings — for completely unrelated reasons!'" Oliver said. They have been exploiting a legal loophole to stay open, but the fantasy is starting to wear off.
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