Month: October 2015

Categories
Sports

NFL player Pierre Garçon sues FanDuel fantasy sports site

Pierre Garçon is charging FanDuel with illegal procedure.

The Washington Redskins receiver contends that the fantasy sports site uses his likeness and those of other NFL stars for commercial purposes without their permission, according to a suit filed on Friday by Garçon with the U.S. District Court in Maryland.

FanDuel makes millions of dollars using players’ images without compensating them, contends Garçon, who says that violates the players’ rights to publicity.

“FanDuel continues to promote and operate its daily fantasy football contests on the backs of NFL players, whose popularity and performance make the defendant commercial daily fantasy football contest possible,” Garçon alleged in court papers.

The suit adds to the controversy over sites such as FanDuel and
DraftKings, which allow contestants to assemble rosters of NFL players and compete for cash prizes based on the performance of their teams.

Though critics charge fantasy sites with hosting illegal gambling, the sites operate pursuant to a federal law passed in 2006 that authorizes simulated sports games that pay out based on the “relative knowledge and skill” of participants.

FanDuel garnered $57 million in revenue and paid out $2 billion in prizes last year, Garçon charges.

For its part, FanDuel says the suit lacks merit, citing the federal statute.

FanDuel counts the NBA and NBC Sports among its investors. Major League Baseball owns part of DraftKings. In a letter released Thursday, FanDuel’s CEO wrote that the company would back “sensible regulation.”

DraftKings and the NFL Players Association struck a deal in September that allows that site to use some of the league’s top-rated players in marketing efforts

Categories
Uncategorized

Mets in seven

Last June marked my first visit to Citi Field, where my nephew, Andrew, and I watched Matt Harvey and the Mets lose to the Giants.

I learned two things that night. First, how delightful Citi Field happens to be. (A Shake Shack just beyond center field!) And second, that the Mets needed some offense if they hoped to play into the postseason.

By the time I returned in August, the Mets had acquired Yoenis Cespedes, who may be one of the best leftfielders and hitters in baseball. The Mets looked like a different team with Cespedes, with his arm wrapped in a dayglo yellow compression sleeve, in the field and at the plate.

The Mets lost that night to the Pirates in 14 innings. But watching Cespedes get two hits in five tries and cover what seemed like the entire outfield suggested the Mets had become a different threat. Plus, I had pulled pork and corn bread.

So who wins the World Series? The Royals have the experience. But the Mets have deGrom, Syndergaard, Harvey, Murphy, Granderson, Colon, Familia, and Cespedes. And the Shack.

Mets in seven.

Categories
Sports

Yahoo stream of NFL game to mark a milestone for digital TV

For the National Football League, the action on the gridiron this Sunday may pale in comparison with what happens online.

That’s because Yahoo will stream a game between the Buffalo Bills and the Jacksonville Jaguars in London live, for free. The webcast from Wembley Stadium will mark the first time an NFL game has aired primarily via the Internet and a milestone in the evolution of online TV.

Yahoo, which reportedly paid $20 million for the rights to the game, will stream a live feed of the game produced by CBS. Other than in Buffalo and Jacksonville, where affiliates of the network will televise the matchup, the game will be available exclusively online.

Roughly 30 companies, including Microsoft, Yahoo, Snickers and Toyota, are slated to advertise during the webcast, which Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has called a “historic opportunity.”

The ability to watch live telecasts of sports typically requires a subscription to pay TV.

Experts say they’ll be watching Yahoo’s webcast to see, among other things, the size of the audience, its age and demographics, and whether viewers watch via mobile devices, TVs or desktops.

Neither the NFL nor Yahoo have said what size audience they anticipate for Sunday’s game. A game between the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins in London on Oct. 4. drew nine million viewers on CBS, compared with the roughly 20 million viewers who tune to network telecasts of NFL games played on Sunday afternoons.

“Broadband and Internet distribution has gotten to a critical place where it can support an NFL game,” Brian Rolapp, the NFL’s executive vice president for media, told Adweek. “One of the reasons we’re there is to see if this could be viable distribution for more than one game.”

“We’ll know a lot more on [Monday],” he added.

Categories
Finance

The New Deal in three charts

With a fourth presidential debate slated for Wednesday, 20 White House hopefuls in the hunt for their party’s nomination, and fall foliage here in the East near peak, last Friday seemed like a perfect time to visit the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, New York.

From Harlem, I boarded a Metro North train that followed the Hudson River to Poughkeepsie, where a taxi took me to the library, about 10 minutes away. There I spent the afternoon in the museum amid exhibits that chronicle the nation’s 32nd president, whose four terms spanned the depths of the Great Depression to within a month of Allied victory in World War II.

Stock price indexes, 1928-1929 (Photo by Brian Browdie, courtesy Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum)
Stock price indexes, 1928-1929 (Photo by Brian Browdie, courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum)

The exhibits include audio excerpts from many of FDR’s 30 national radio addresses. As I listened to some of those “fireside chats,” I was struck by the contrast between the way FDR addressed the public and much of what passes for political discourse nowadays.

By the time FDR took the oath of office on March 4, 1933, nearly 13 million Americans—about one quarter of the civilian labor force—were out of work and nearly every bank was closed.

Three days into his term, as failures of financial institutions swelled, FDR ordered a week-long suspension of all banking transactions. On March 12, he took to the airwaves, to tell the American people about the bank holiday he had ordered.

After explaining a series of actions underway by the government to recapitalize and reopen banks, FDR called on Americans to resist “being stampeded by rumors or guesses” and to have confidence in the government’s ability to carry out the plan.

“Let us unite in banishing fear,” he added. “We have provided the machinery to restore our financial system; it is up to you to support and make it work. It is your problem no less than it is mine. Together we cannot fail.”

FDR challenged the American people. The seizing up of the banks wasn’t just the government’s or the president’s problem, he told them. It’s your problem, too.

Of course, he was correct. If you are unable to withdraw money from your bank account because the bank ran out of currency, you have a problem.

Photo by Brian Browdie (Courtesy Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum)
Photo by Brian Browdie (Courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum)

Still, it’s not as if FDR didn’t have opponents who had their own views on how to fix the economy. Or who hesitated to blast the president’s plan.

Business charged that the New Deal—the series of steps by FDR to end the Great Depression—gave too much power to trade unions. Republicans attacked Roosevelt for increasing the deficit and extending federal power.

Photo by Brian Browdie (Courtesy Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum)
Photo by Brian Browdie (Courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum)

From the left, FDR’s fellow Democrat, Senator Huey Long of Louisiana, would later propose to cap personal fortunes at $50 million and redistribute the wealth to guarantee each household a grant of $5,000 and a minimum yearly income of between $2,000 and $3,000 (nearly $54,000 in today’s dollars).

FDR may have had an excuse to pander. Yet he reminded us that we have a stake in, and an obligation to ensure, our country’s well-being.