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You're Probably Getting Screwed - - - [View all]
I get these weekly emails from JD Scholten, a former baseball player and current IA representative. It's informative but frankly, depressing.
There is more in their substack about other a ways you're getting screwed. I just clipped this part.
(You'll notice Donald Jr popping up in the video at about 23:30 as an "advisor" for Kalshi 
)
https://screwed.substack.com/p/major-league-profits
Welcome to You’re Probably Getting Screwed, a weekly newsletter and video series from J.D. Scholten and Justin Stofferahn about the Second Gilded Age and the ways economic concentration is putting politics and profits over working people.
YOU’RE PROBABLY (ALSO) GETTING SCREWED BY:
The hypocrisy of how professional sports leagues have handled the explosion in sports gambling was on display last week. Back in December Major League Baseball (MLB) alongside the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) - the players union - sent a letter to players prohibiting them from engaging with baseball event contracts on platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket. These are so-called prediction market platforms where people can gamble on everything from trade rumors to which country President Trump will start a war with next.
However, what is good for the goose is not apparently good for the gander because while players must stay away from prediction markets, team owners can slide right in. Last week MLB announced a new exclusive partnership with Polymarket that will give the platform the exclusive rights to use MLB marks and logos and official league data for baseball-related bets. Oh sorry, I mean “prediction contracts.” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred signed the partnership in conjunction with a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the new chair of the Commodity Futures Trade Commission (CFTC), Michael Selig.
Selig, a crypto shill that shares President Trump’s vision of making America the crypto capital of the world, has been working to block any state regulation of prediction markets by asserting the CFTC is the exclusive regulator of these event contracts. This includes asserting that sports-related event contracts do not constitute sports gambling, which is the hook states are using to try and provide some oversight. Selig claimed the CFTC will be a “strong cop on the beat” at an event with Manfred announcing the MOU with MLB, but the Trump Administration has done little to show they will do anything to reign in corporate fraud and abuse.
Welcome to You’re Probably Getting Screwed, a weekly newsletter and video series from J.D. Scholten and Justin Stofferahn about the Second Gilded Age and the ways economic concentration is putting politics and profits over working people.
YOU’RE PROBABLY (ALSO) GETTING SCREWED BY:
Gambling
The hypocrisy of how professional sports leagues have handled the explosion in sports gambling was on display last week. Back in December Major League Baseball (MLB) alongside the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) - the players union - sent a letter to players prohibiting them from engaging with baseball event contracts on platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket. These are so-called prediction market platforms where people can gamble on everything from trade rumors to which country President Trump will start a war with next.
However, what is good for the goose is not apparently good for the gander because while players must stay away from prediction markets, team owners can slide right in. Last week MLB announced a new exclusive partnership with Polymarket that will give the platform the exclusive rights to use MLB marks and logos and official league data for baseball-related bets. Oh sorry, I mean “prediction contracts.” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred signed the partnership in conjunction with a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the new chair of the Commodity Futures Trade Commission (CFTC), Michael Selig.
Selig, a crypto shill that shares President Trump’s vision of making America the crypto capital of the world, has been working to block any state regulation of prediction markets by asserting the CFTC is the exclusive regulator of these event contracts. This includes asserting that sports-related event contracts do not constitute sports gambling, which is the hook states are using to try and provide some oversight. Selig claimed the CFTC will be a “strong cop on the beat” at an event with Manfred announcing the MOU with MLB, but the Trump Administration has done little to show they will do anything to reign in corporate fraud and abuse.
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