The Massachusetts Gaming Commission says it is reviewing comments made by sportscaster Bill Simmons after he admitted on his own podcast that he had someone else place bets on his behalf, a practice known as proxy betting that is prohibited under state law.
Simmons, who founded the sports website The Ringer, told his podcast audience that he had his daughter’s boyfriend log into his FanDuel account and place wagers for him while Simmons was in California and unable to bet legally in Massachusetts, where the boyfriend was located. Massachusetts law requires that a person be physically in the state when placing an online bet.
According to Simmons, the arrangement involved him receiving a verification code on his phone, which he then passed along so the boyfriend could log in and place the bets. He said he had built up money from having hit several successful futures bets the previous year.
“I get the code to make sure it’s me to my phone, I give him the code, he logs in. And I have all this money that I had from last year because I actually hit a bunch of futures last year. And he’s putting in bets for me,” Simmons said, adding that “it was a real bonding moment for us.”
Simmons said the boyfriend placed proxy bets for him on multiple occasions using the FanDuel account. FanDuel is also a sponsor of The Ringer.
In a more recent episode, Simmons addressed the matter again, saying he had not realized the practice was illegal.
“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,” he said. “Yeah, there are some real rules with this stuff, and they’ve ruled that not only are the bets going to be voided — and I learned my lesson.”
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission confirmed it is looking into the situation. “The Commission is aware of the comments made on the Bill Simmons Podcast, and staff is currently reviewing the matter,” the commission said in a statement.
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