Daily fantasy sports have hummed along with only minor legal and other issues over the last few years, raking in millions of dollars in revenue and bombarding media with advertisements. It’s unclear if the peachy road will continue for the likes of daily fantasy giants DraftKings and FanDuel, but it has certainly become more rocky over the last week.
Both sites, along with other lesser-known similar services, have come under fire over the legality of the concept, with lawmakers and others befuddled as to why the gambling is not illegal. Things have been snowballing over the last couple weeks, particularly after revelations of potential insider trading when a DraftKings employee allegedly had inside information for FanDuel and won $350,000 on the competing site.
It will take many weeks and months before the situation is over and the debates, lobbying and potential lawsuits are settled. Until then, barring an unexpected development, gamblers will continue to compete for millions of dollars, with many enticed by various promotional deals offered by both sites.
On Wednesday, FanDuel aired one of the four million commercials we’ve all seen since the football season began. Like others, they included a unique promo code for a matching $200 bonus (Side Note: The $200 bonus is very misleading. Be sure you understand the terms before jumping to your computer.) but instead of a meaningless word like “Microphone” or “Touchdown”, they elected for something that hilariously reflected the potential demise of daily fantasy services:
This couldn't be a more appropriate @FanDuel promo code for today. The end is coming pic.twitter.com/LocOSOzF0H
— Andrew Doughty (@Adoughty88) October 7, 2015
They likely selected the word many weeks in advance and never anticipated the commercial running on the exact day that their company was under the most heat in its history. However, it was still perfectly awesome.
