Bill Simmons Faces FanDuel Action, Massachusetts Review Over Proxy Betting

FanDuel has taken action against Bill Simmons’ account and reported the matter to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) after The Ringer founder said he used his daughter’s boyfriend to place wagers for him while he was in California.

The sportsbook also voided the wagers, while the MGC confirmed that staff are reviewing the matter.

Simmons disclosed the arrangement on The Bill Simmons Podcast over the weekend. He said he gave his FanDuel login information and an authentication code to his daughter’s boyfriend, Hank, who was in Massachusetts.

I let Hank log into my FanDuel as me,” Simmons said. “I get the code to make sure it’s me to my phone. I give him the code. He logs in.”

FanDuel subsequently confirmed that it had acted on the admission.

“We became aware of the issue and handled it consistent with our Terms and Conditions and Massachusetts Gaming Commission regulations, including reporting the matter to the MGC, voiding the bets, and actioning the account,” a FanDuel spokesperson told Front Office Sports.

The company did not specify what action it took against Simmons’ account.

Simmons Says He ‘Learned My Lesson’

Simmons addressed the controversy again on Tuesday, saying he was unaware that proxy betting was prohibited.

“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,” Simmons said during his podcast.

Yeah, there’s some real rules with this stuff, and they’ve ruled that they not only are the bets going to be voided, and I learned my lesson, apparently, proxy betting is not allowed. I actually thought it was, but that’s fine… So all those bets went out the window.”

Simmons had previously explained that he wanted to place futures bets involving UCLA and the Houston Texans.

However, he could not do so himself from California, where sports betting is illegal. He said his FanDuel account still contained money from futures bets he had won the previous year, and that Hank used those funds to place the wagers in Massachusetts.

Simmons also revealed that the arrangement occurred multiple times.

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

Proxy Betting Prohibited Under FanDuel, Massachusetts Rules

Both FanDuel’s terms and Massachusetts sports wagering rules prohibit proxy betting.

FanDuel’s terms state that an account is “solely for your personal use.” The operator prohibits customers from wagering on behalf of a third party or allowing another person to access their account. The operator defines that conduct as proxy betting and states that, if detected, it “may result in a permanent suspension and forfeiture of winnings.”

Massachusetts law separately requires licensed sportsbooks to employ commercially reasonable methods to “prohibit persons from placing wagers as agents or proxies for others.”

State regulations also treat a person placing a wager as a proxy for someone else as a prohibited person. Regulations require operators to prevent that person from wagering and to cancel wagers placed under those circumstances.

The MGC confirmed that it is examining Simmons’ comments.

“The Commission is aware of the comments made on The Bill Simmons Podcast, and staff are currently reviewing the matter,” MGC spokesperson Thomas Mills told Front Office Sports.

The incident is also notable because of Simmons’ commercial relationship with FanDuel. The sportsbook has been the exclusive sports-betting partner of The Ringer, the sports and pop-culture media company that Simmons founded, since 2021.

Neither FanDuel nor the MGC has disclosed whether Simmons faces additional consequences beyond the voided wagers and the unspecified action already taken against his account.