Written by :
Published on :
CNBC's Contessa Brewer was getting torched Wednesday for failing to push back on FanDuel CEO Amy Howe's outrageous claim that offshore sportsbook stiff sports bettors 25% of the time. Gambling911.com has been covering the industry since 1999, and if that number is even 1% we'd be surprised. Brewer referenced three companies in her hit piece last week, two (BetOnline and Bovada) have never been accused of stiffing player in their 20 plus years existence. We can't - and won't - defend the third mentioned company, MyBookie.ag.
It happened Wednesday afternoon at the SBC North American Summit. Brewer has disclosed in the past in her sports betting focused articles that CNBC's parent company owns FanDuel but allowing Howe to make such a comment without citing evidence was outrageous. To be fair, we missed the introduction to Wednesday's discussion if she disclosed this or not, as if it really matter since this was akin to a really bad infomercial.
BetBash founder Gadoon “Spanky” Kyrollos expressed his disgust via Twitter Wednesday evening.
It’s probably good for everyone’s sake I wasn’t present at that panel https://t.co/ocd5GhRoUQ
— spanky (@spanky) July 13, 2022
Spanky's Twitter following equals that of Brewer's. But if Brewer is going to continue to report on the industry, she's gonna need to be a little more responsible.
Brewer cracked "By the way, I know I am right" after remarking how angry sports bettors had flooded her email box following a disparaging article she penned last week attacking offshore sportsbooks. Get off your pedestal.
Brewer, who seems oblivious to the fact that offshore books funded efforts to get sports betting legalized in the U.S. (that might require some homework on her part), continued the back and forth banter with Howe. Too much for us here at Gambling911 to stomach.
As we regularly like to point out, Gambling911.com fought for access rights for online media outlets back in 2009, suing the U.S. Justice Department, and winning. Sites that you all may hate - Breitbart, Politico, Huff Post - now have the same access rights as CNBC thanks to this decision. Attorney General Merrick Garland has better things to do than bow to some media company that...well..kinda runs an online sportsbook. Just throwing that out there.
Maybe we should write a letter to AG Garland asking why a media outlet with a vested interest in a sportsbook would be wasting his valuable time.
- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
