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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - How about culpability?
00:05 I guess that's the next topic here
00:06 with this Thrive fantasy,
00:09 this fantasy operator that so many folks
00:12 have gone to social media complaining
00:14 about not getting paid out.
00:15 Finally, a statement was released late last year
00:18 about some of the issues that they had
00:19 trying to get additional funding to stay alive.
00:22 But I mean, I suppose Mike,
00:25 it's like what kind of message can you send to people
00:26 who don't get paid?
00:28 This is the dynamic that you never wanna see
00:30 in this industry.
00:31 I just hope in the end,
00:32 somehow all of the players get something back
00:35 for what they put into it.
00:36 But I would say that optimism is not on their side
00:39 at the moment.
00:40 - Craig, you're absolutely right.
00:42 And that's why we, you know,
00:43 at Legal Sports Report, Container Media,
00:45 you guys at Sports Grid,
00:46 you know, always encourage people,
00:48 go to the sites that are protected in your state.
00:51 You know, go on your state gaming commission website,
00:54 check is this fantasy site that I'm playing on regulated?
00:57 You know, Fandle Draftkings are,
00:58 but there's some of these other ones.
00:59 I mean, a lot of the times as a reporter,
01:01 'cause this industry is so big,
01:03 we learn of these companies like Thrive Fantasy
01:05 and No House Advantage, which shuttered its doors,
01:07 looks like Thrive is gonna do the same.
01:09 And you know, these players who are owed thousands of dollars
01:13 some five figure balances, you know,
01:14 some of them paid a little bit,
01:16 but you know, may not get all the money they're owed.
01:18 And that's super disappointing.
01:19 I mean, even if you go on Twitter as of this morning,
01:22 people are asking what's going on at Thrive?
01:25 So our Sam McQuillan reporting that
01:28 they tried to have another funding round,
01:30 it didn't work out,
01:31 and it looks like they're gonna shutter their doors.
01:33 That's according to sources who spoke with Sam.
01:35 So again, another cautionary tale,
01:37 very disappointing for people that invested in this site,
01:40 thought they were gonna get paid out accordingly
01:42 if they won money, some of them did.
01:44 And the company ended up citing fraud
01:46 as to why, you know, it didn't have the money.
01:48 The CEO has been very quiet since initially talking to me
01:52 when we kind of uncovered a lot of this stuff,
01:54 or at least brought it to light,
01:54 because it was on some of those social media sites
01:58 that people weren't being paid out.
02:00 And another disappointing story for the industry,
02:02 and again, maybe it's not the bigger operators,
02:04 obviously, PricePix and Underdog
02:05 are dealing with their own sort of situation
02:07 with against the houses we'll talk about,
02:09 you know, later in the segment.
02:10 But a lot of these smaller operators,
02:12 I mean, again, if you're a consumer,
02:13 you've gotta be careful, protect yourself.
02:15 Unfortunately, we wish we could put it out there
02:17 for everybody that says,
02:18 "This site is unregulated on that Thrive Fantasy
02:20 "or wherever it is, don't put your money here,
02:23 "or at least don't put your life savings in
02:24 "because you don't know if you can get it out."
02:27 But again, these should be basic protections.
02:28 The bottom line is, you know,
02:30 regulators and legislators need to crack down
02:31 just as much as these smaller sites
02:33 as they do the bigger ones.
02:34 And you hope everybody learns something from this,
02:36 and these people can get made whole, Craig,
02:38 but it doesn't appear that's gonna happen.
02:40 (upbeat music)
02:42 [MUSIC]