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SportsTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 All right, so let's start off-- and there may be some people
00:06 unfamiliar with the story of an app called Thrive Fantasy,
00:11 which essentially is sort of like a daily fantasy app that's
00:16 been out there for a few years.
00:18 All of a sudden, on social media,
00:21 there was a groundswell of people
00:23 saying that they had a hard time receiving their payouts
00:27 from Thrive Fantasy.
00:29 And by the way, this is not recent.
00:31 This is going back six, eight months, full transparency.
00:34 I even received an email from somebody watching the show
00:39 saying that they were having issues as well
00:40 and would be happy to talk to me about it as well.
00:43 And naturally, I referred to you guys at Legal Sports Report.
00:45 I suppose this individual had spoken to them too.
00:48 So look, I don't know, Sam, what's exactly going on here.
00:51 But at the very least, the CEO of the company
00:54 did release some statement.
00:55 So I don't know if I missed any part of the story.
00:58 If I did, please fill our viewers and listeners in
01:00 and now update us with the statement that is being made.
01:05 Yeah, Craig, you're spot on with your recount
01:07 and everything that happened.
01:08 This daily fantasy sports app Thrive Fantasy,
01:12 which operates in that Pick'em space, which really appeals
01:14 to people who want sports betting or a product closer
01:18 to sports betting than perhaps a season-long contest
01:21 or a daily lineup contest where you're
01:23 making these over/under selections,
01:25 things of that nature.
01:26 They-- reports came out a few months ago
01:29 that they weren't paying some people out.
01:31 Like you said, it started to swell on social media.
01:34 At the time, the company kind of didn't really address it much.
01:37 And then it became bigger.
01:38 Legal Sports Report did several stories on it.
01:40 My colleague Mike Mazzeo has been sort of at the forefront
01:43 of this coverage.
01:44 But now you have them finally talking,
01:46 coming forward with some kind of statement,
01:47 basically saying they're investigating several accounts
01:51 that either perhaps took advantage of their Pick'em
01:54 product and also saying at the same time
01:57 that they were subject to a bank and check fraud
02:00 scheme, which froze their accounts that they used
02:04 to process withdrawals and immediately impacted
02:07 kind of the ability for people to get money out.
02:09 So it's a couple of different things they're saying.
02:12 It's like on the one hand, some accounts
02:14 are under investigation for perhaps taking advantage of--
02:18 I don't know whether it's mispriced products
02:20 or something like that.
02:21 It's a skill-based app.
02:22 So it's hard to really argue that kind of thing
02:26 that you would do with sports betting, where
02:28 we have bad lines, that sort of thing.
02:30 And then at the same time, you have them saying
02:32 that they've essentially been hacked,
02:33 and that's why they can't pay out money.
02:35 Now, some customers have received money.
02:38 Some customers are down as much as five figures
02:42 that are missing.
02:43 We've heard reports that they've gotten maybe small increments
02:46 of that money.
02:47 Other customers have been reached out
02:49 to send personal emails that say, rest assured,
02:51 your funds are safe.
02:52 We're still looking into it.
02:53 So this is sort of them trying to buy some time, maybe
02:56 save some face on this front.
02:58 And at the same time, the company,
03:00 it came out that they were trying to raise capital
03:03 pretty much during this entire process
03:05 over the last couple of months.
03:06 Their goal is to be profitable by the third quarter
03:09 of this year.
03:10 I don't know how much this impacts that.
03:13 I would imagine bad PR, bad press
03:15 from this whole situation.
03:17 But this is a company that had a lot of investors behind it,
03:20 which is not uncommon in the sports betting or fantasy space
03:23 where you have kind of this,
03:25 selling this idea that we'll be able to turn
03:27 all these customers profitable by a certain date.
03:29 But now you have it coming out with their CEO
03:31 trying to save face and people still don't have their funds.
03:34 So it's gonna be something to watch going forward.
03:36 I'm sure more will develop in this story.
03:40 There've been multiple attorney generals
03:42 in New York and North Carolina
03:44 that customers went out and contacted and said,
03:47 hey, we can't get our funds.
03:48 Can you please help us?
03:49 I'm told that the company has not engaged with them so far.
03:52 There's potential lawsuits pending from different customers,
03:56 maybe class action situation where you get everyone involved
03:59 but it's not looking great for Thrive Fantasy.
04:01 You can say it's not thriving right now.
04:03 (upbeat music)
04:06 (bells chiming)