The MLB Players Association told federal lawmakers it would support a ban on personalized athlete marketing inside sportsbook VIP programs, and said it is ready to negotiate that restriction into the next collective bargaining agreement with MLB.
As reported on Aug. 11, lawmakers had already pressed FanDuel, MLB and the union after the Bryce Harper video became public. In letters dated Aug. 10, Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Reps. Paul D. Tonko and Valerie P. Foushee called FanDuel’s VIP program predatory and urged MLB and the players’ union to bar players from promotional work for gambling companies.
The union said it was responding to an inquiry from members of Congress about the use of athletes in personalized content for sportsbooks’ VIP programs. Jeffrey Perconte, the MLBPA’s general counsel, said the union is prepared to add a VIP-marketing restriction to the labour agreement that is now being negotiated with MLB.
Perconte also said the current agreement allows players to appear in ads or make personal appearances for casinos, racetracks or sportsbooks, so long as they do not encourage betting on baseball itself. He described that framework as a good-faith effort to allow responsible betting-related promotional activity, but acknowledged that it does not directly address VIP-style programs.
FanDuel replied in an Aug. 14 letter defending its VIP programs. The company said its VIP hosts are salaried employees whose pay is not tied to customers’ wagering results, and said it reviews betting history before granting VIP status and uses tools to cap how much and how often bettors wager.
The episode that drew the scrutiny involved a 21-second Cameo video featuring Harper, recorded in 2024 and sent to Terry Thompson, a Montgomery County, Pa., resident. Sportico reported that Thompson described it as a FanDuel reward and said he had wagered $18.5 million with the sportsbook and lost $1.5 million; Harper, for his part, said he did not know the clip would be used in that way and would not have made it had he known.
