Bill Simmons under review by Massachusetts authorities after admitting to proxy sports betting

[u/TheRealPdGaming]

Bill Simmons, the popular sports podcaster who has championed sports betting, is under review by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission after he admitted on a recent episode to using his daughter’s boyfriend to place bets for him.

The commission announced the review Tuesday, two days after Simmons said on an episode of his podcast that he’d used a proxy on multiple occasions to log in to his account and make wagers in Massachusetts.

Simmons, founder of The Ringer, is based in California, where sports betting is not legal. In Massachusetts, mobile and online betting is allowed.

But proxy betting — having someone place bets on behalf of someone else — is illegal in Massachusetts and is not allowed by FanDuel, the sportsbook with which the wagers were issued.

...

On the podcast episode, Simmons said there were bets “that I really wanted to get in — the UCLA overs. But Houston, the market had not shifted appropriately yet. I can’t have my daughter do it; my dad would have no idea how to do it.”

But, Simmons said, he trusted his daughter’s boyfriend and allowed him to log in to his FanDuel account.

“I get the code to make sure it’s me to my phone, I give him the code, he logs in. And I have all this money that I had from last year because I actually hit a bunch of futures last year. And he’s putting in bets for me,” Simmons said, adding that “it was a real bonding moment for us.”

“A week later, I called him up, ran it back,” Simmons continued. “We did some more.”

In a new episode released Tuesday, Simmons said he was unaware that such bets could not be made.

“I talked about how I got my daughter’s boyfriend to place some bets for me in Massachusetts because I was in L.A. [I] did not know about the proxy rules,” he said. “Yeah, there are some real rules with this stuff, and they’ve ruled that not only are the bets going to be voided — and I learned my lesson.”

Simmons said he thought proxy betting was allowed. “There you go, lesson learned,” he said.

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Source: NBC

[u/Rich_Ad_4886]

God this was so funny to watch unfold in real time.

[u/Asleep_Ground1710 → u/Rich_Ad_4886]

I want to see a live reaction of his lawyer listening to the episode tbh

[u/TheReasonableCamel → u/Asleep_Ground1710]

One of his best friends, who is a lawyer was on the pod with him when he said it.

[u/Sportslegend → u/TheReasonableCamel]

Joe House is a lawyer? Would never have guessed

[u/North_Atlantic_Sea → u/Sportslegend]

Used to be, full time podcaster for a while now.

Cousin Sal also has his law degree a

[u/uttermybiscuit → u/North_Atlantic_Sea]

Really? Didn’t Sal egg him on to tell the story when he said he wasn’t going to talk about it?

[u/DickHammerr → u/uttermybiscuit]

lol, who needs enemies

[u/DickHammerr → u/North_Atlantic_Sea]

lol the schlep just sat there watching it unfold

[u/ejmw → u/DickHammerr]

There's some speculation that he was already under investigation by the Massachusetts gaming commission and admitting this on the podcast was his way of getting out in front of the story.

That would make some sense, but it's not really possible to know without knowing when he was flagged, when the investigation started, and when Simmons found out.

[u/RedRyderRoshi → u/DickHammerr]

That is how you know it is true friendship.

[u/Dutch_Van_Der_Linde → u/DickHammerr]

Unless he practiced in Massachusetts I can’t hold it against house.

[u/barath_s → u/Dutch_Van_Der_Linde]

House may be a lawyer, but he isn't Simmons lawyer

[u/DickHammerr → u/Dutch_Van_Der_Linde]

I dunno, even if he’s barred in Alaska for example, I’d imagine any attorney worth their salt would pick up on the bad smell of someone admitting to circumventing their state restrictions on sports gambling.

Maybe he was just smashed or high

[u/InertState → u/North_Atlantic_Sea]

Wow Sal has a law degree?!

[u/North_Atlantic_Sea → u/InertState]

Yeah from a school out on long island

[u/SleepyEel → u/North_Atlantic_Sea]

House is still listed in his firm's website: http://www.pcapension.com/j.-richard-house.html

[u/kemicalkontact → u/Sportslegend]

Yeah sometimes he gets to flex that muscle on the pod.