Indiana Gaming Commission Director Leaves Post to Take Job With Sports Betting App Fliff

On Wednesday Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb announced that Indiana Gaming Commission (IGC) Executive Director Greg Small will be leaving his post on Sept. 20 after three years in the post.

Now we are learning what his next job will be.

Small confirmed his resignation via LinkedIn and also announced he will be taking a job with Fliff.

“I have accepted a role with Fliff Inc. to become the Head of Legal & Government Affairs. I will begin working with Matt Ricci and the Fliff team later this month. It’s an exciting opportunity and I cannot wait to get to work,” he wrote.

Fliff calls itself "a diverse, multinational team, backed by leading venture investors and founders in sports tech and gaming. We are a remote working company with teams spanning across the United States, Sofia, and Manila."

It's just like sports betting, sort of.

Fliff is currently available in Indiana but the platform is controversial.

Sports Betting Companies Targeting Underage Gamblers

Harrison Zuritsky, news correspondent for the Huntington News at Northeastern University, wrote about Fliff's influence back in May.

Jacob Pollock and a few friends started betting on sports games when they were seniors in high school. But once he discovered Fliff, a “social sports betting” platform that allows people of any age to participate, he noticed a significant shift: sports betting is normalized in society for fans of all ages. 

Pollock, a 20-year-old second-year business administration major at Northeastern, says he encounters betting everywhere he goes on campus: at his fraternity’s house, in his dorm and at the dining halls. Discussions about odds, parlays and playmaking have taken over and it doesn’t show any signs of diminishing, despite negative stigmas related to its addictive nature and the fact that underage gambling, technically, is illegal.

“Honestly, it’s almost like a hobby now. You bet on sports, when you go to your friend’s house and you’re watching a game,” Pollock said. “You both have money on [the game] — maybe you’re rooting for the opposite teams and then it becomes intense. It’s just a thing that college students do. You get a big dopamine rush when you have it. It makes the game more entertaining.”

Pollock is one of many sports fans aged 15 to 20 who are betting on apps like Fliff before they reach the legal age of 21 to use official sportsbooks.

Rick Maese of the Washington Post also wrote about Fliff's influence over younger gamblers ahead of the Super Bowl earlier this year.

In the days leading up to kickoff, users of Fliff, a popular mobile gaming app, placed more than 200,000 “bets” on last month’s NFL conference championship games. They bet on Patrick Mahomes throwing for at least 240 yards, on Christian McCaffrey scoring the first touchdown and on the usual array of money line, point spread and over-under offerings.

They did it, in many cases, without verifying their age or even spending a dollar.

That’s because Fliff is not a traditional online sportsbook. It’s a “social sportsbook,” and a pillar of its business model involves users making bets with “virtual currency.” That has enabled Fliff and apps like it to operate with little interference from state or federal authorities that regulate sports betting despite being marketed in some places as “suitable for ages 13 and up” and easily downloaded by even younger users.

Indiana Regulatory Upheaval

Indiana's sports betting sector is no stranger to controversy either.

In July, a former Indiana lawmakers was sentenced to twelve months behind bars for admitting to pushing legislation favorable to an Indiana casino company in exchange for the promise of a future job with the company worth at least $350,000 a year.

Sean Eberhart, a Republican, will also have to pay a $25,000 fine as well as $60,000 in restitution.

Eberhart pleaded guilty on Nov. 28 to one count of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, a federal felony that carried a sentence of up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and up to three years of probation.

A Spectacle Entertainment executive identified as "Individual A" conspired with other unnamed individuals to deprive the residents of Eberhart's district of honest services through bribery and concealment, according to the complaint.

Federal prosecutors also identified Rod Ratcliff, one of the state's most powerful casino executives, as a conspirator in a scheme to illegally funnel casino cash to a former state senator's congressional campaign.

Small was never implicated in this matter.

Last year, State Sen. Chris Garten (R-Charlestown) grilled members of the Indiana Gaming Commission (IGC) and threatened to impose changes if the regulatory body doesn’t quickly adjust how it reviews regulatory violations.

Garten and Sen. Ryan Mishler (R-Mishawaka) accused the Commission of handing down excessive and subjective fines.

"It appears that the ideology is because casinos are profitable in Indiana, we should be able to fine them more,” said Garten, as first reported by the Indiana Capital Chronicle. “That doesn’t give you the right.”

In an ironic twist, the IGC is known to impose fines for failing to prevent an underage person from accessing a casino.