Pete Rose Back in Gambling: Will Shill for Daily Fantasy Sports Site

Written by:
Guest
Published on:
Jun/12/2016

It was inevitable.  The professional athlete most closely identified with gambling--Pete Rose--and the nation's newest form of sports gambling--daily fantasy sports--have joined forces with Rose becoming the face of dfs site fanDaction.com.

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The appeal of the site is that instead of just matching up your dfs skills against an army of faceless competitors across the nation, you can go up against gambling aficionado and all-time Major League Baseball hits leader Pete Rose.

The fanDaction website reads: "Do you think you have what it takes to beat Pete Rose at his own game? With Pete's Picks, you--the average Joe--get a chance to put your skills to the test and play against the picks of The Hit King himself. You'd better bring your 'A' game if you want to earn bragging rights over one of the greatest baseball players of all time...Can you out-hustle Charlie Hustle?"

Participants on fanDaction.com, which went online in 2014, can now not only compete against Rose at baseball, they will also be able to try to beat the three-time World Series champion at a variety of other sports, including football, basketball, hockey, golf, horse racing and auto racing.

The site offers contests for free play or for real money.

The site's official Twitter feed, at https://twitter.com/fanDaction , declared on June 10: "Pete Rose is back in baseball!"

The marriage between Rose and fanDaction.com is a curious one, to say the least.

Rose, 75, Major League Baseball's all-time hit leader with 4,256 hits, was permanently banned from baseball in 1989 after it was revealed that he bet on Major League Baseball games with an illegal bookie while he was manager of the Cincinnati Reds.

For years Rose denied the gambling accusations, but finally, in 2004, he came clean and admitted, in a book he wrote, that he had bet on baseball.

It was subsequently revealed that he not only bet on baseball, including on his own team, the Reds, while a manager, but also while a player.

One of Major League Baseball's cardinal rules--posted in every MLB clubhouse--is that no employee of MLB may wager on baseball.

Because of Rose's lifetime ban from baseball, he is not eligible for baseball's Hall of Fame, despite having some of the best batting statistics of anyone who has ever played the game.

Now, the man who's banned from baseball for betting on baseball has gotten involved with another form of betting on sports--daily fantasy sports--which many states in the U.S. have declared is a form of gambling and have either banned or taken steps to regulate.

For someone who is desperately trying to get MLB to reverse its ban on him so he can enter the Hall, Rose's becoming the new face of fanDaction.com seems like self-sabotage.

Yes, MLB and other pro sports leagues, as well as individual teams in those leagues, have their own sponsorships with dfs sites, but Rose is the one who's been banned and he seems like he's thumbing his nose at the ban--and at MLB--by shilling for fanDaction.com.

It's not Rose's first attempt at entering online gambling.

Almost 20 years ago, several Rose-related Internet addresses, including PeteRoseCasino.com, were officially purchased by an unknown individual or individuals, but a Rose-themed online casino never came to fruition.

And Rose isn't the first baseball player to get involved with online gambling.

Also almost 20 years ago, slugger Reggie Jackson was hired to shill for an online casino.

After Major League Baseball found out about it, Jackson was told to cut ties with the casino or face banishment from baseball.

Jackson, who was then retired as an active player but was an executive with the New York Yankees, immediately severed ties with the casino.

By Tom Somach

Gambling 911 Staff Writer

tomsomach@yahoo.com

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