30 most vicious John Oliver take downs
By Jeremy Dick
13. John Oliver takes down daily fantasy sports companies
Chances are you know somebody who participates in fantasy daily sports. How many Facebook status updates do you see every football season where people brag about how their fantasy players are doing? But there’s a dark side to the fantasy sports industry, as John Oliver exposed on Last Week Tonight.
Sites like FanDuel and DraftKings make a lot of money from their users, but they insist that playing fantasy sports isn’t gambling. They get around gambling laws by claiming to be an “entertainment” service. This is humorous for Oliver, who points out that these sites market to the Vegas crowds who will spend all of their money on these services. They’re still blowing their money by taking chances.
Still, these sites insist that they are merely entertainment services, and that anyone can win big by playing. That might technically be true, but the odds are still so much of a long shot that you might as well just go to the casinos. To further demonstrate the point, Oliver enlisted Seth Rogen to help do a parody ad of the fantasy sports services, and it’s a hilarious take down about how they really are.
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