Originally posted by Scott Atkins:
The show is a go gang, here's the trailer:
http://www.espnmediazone3.com/us/2011/1 ... r-15-2011/
In the world of fantasy sports, nothing was bigger than the World Championship of Fantasy Football (WCOFF), boasting some of fantasy sports’ largest cash prizes. But last year, fantasy football and baseball winners stopped getting paid, and a business that appeared to be at the height of success began to crumble, leaving players wondering what happened to the thousands of dollars they paid in entrance fees. Reporter T.J. Quinn uncovers what may have gone wrong with the WCOFF.
“When 12 guys put in $25,000 for a fantasy football league with the biggest fantasy football company around, and then the winner doesn't get paid, I want to know what happened to the money”. -- Chad Schroeder, professional gambler
"We're a small operation, and the economy got us. We made some bad bets. As a business we've lost over $4 million and unfortunately there are still some people who haven't been paid. That pales in comparison to what our investors have incurred. We needed someone to step in and get in the fight with us. We couldn't find that person to get us over the hump." -- Dustin Ashby, who, with a partner, purchased WCOFF from its original owners From the looks of the trailer, this is going to be an investigative piece on a sports business that went bad and affected a lot of people. Seems like a legitimate story to me. TJ Quinn is a respected journalist and I give credit to ESPN already for acknowledging that one of their own -- Suzy Kolber -- was there to hand the imaginary $300,000 check to Tony Windis. It's a bad story for our industry, but one that should be told and from the early looks ESPN will do it right. I hope that's what happens.
I also think this Missouri Attorney General isn't going to let go of this case until it's resolved, too. I don't know if that means that players will eventually get paid part of their winnings or not, but if he goes after the fraud part of the case then the bankruptcy filing might not be enough to protect the owners of this business. There still might be some resolution for players before all is said and done, depending on how aggressive this AG is towards not only Dustin by the majority owners of the business. Dustin was the face of the WCOFF but there were others who financed this investment.
The one thing I don't get about the suit filed by the AG is the amount of damages he believes Gridiron Sports has inflicted on consumers. He says less than $350,000, which doesn't even cover the winnings of Chad Schroeder, Tony Windis and Kevin Kirves. Between those three players alone it's over $600,000. With 460+ creditors on the bankruptcy filing, it's not hard to see that total prize money owed is well over $1 million. Unfortunately, much of that is from players who allowed WCOFF to carry over their winnings to the next season...a season that never came.
I will be watching tomorrow and feeling bad for all involved. This was easily a problem that could have been avoided, no matter what anyone says. This was a profitable business, a shining star for our industry, a great example of entrepreunerialship creating a fantastic product. And bad, bad business decisions by new owners who overpaid for the asset led to this demise and then dishonesty led to what could become criminal actions. What a shame. What a crying shame for everyone.
Continued good luck all. It looks like some folks are fighting for ya and I have a feeling this fight isn't going away anytime soon. I hope you all eventually get paid what is due you.