“I didn’t know a single player, but then you start studying the statistics like a stock chart almost, and you start programming your life. I did it the first night — it was right after the Super Bowl a couple years ago — my wife walked into our bedroom and I had an NBA game on. She looked at me kind of funny. The second night, she walks in the bedroom and looks at me kind of funny, an NBA game on. The third night, she walked in and looked at me like I had started smoking cigarettes. She said, ‘Since when do you watch basketball games?’ And I started watching when I started playing some of these daily fantasy games, and I love it. I kid around with some of our producers, there’s one guy at ESPN we make out lineups every day together. I say: ‘This is my cigarette break. I take a five-minute break and I fill out my NBA DFS $3 lineup.” It’s literally become one of my biggest hobbies. . . . I love it.
Fantasy Rumors
16 Oct 16
Mark Cuban: “So let’s talk about what it means to be a game of skill because it’s something that’s misunderstood, and it’s really quite simple. I’ll use my own experience owning the Dallas Mavericks to make the point. Donnie Nelson and my team manage the Mavericks in the same way that most sophisticated people play daily fantasy sports — they collect the data, analyze it and make predictions about what it means. We succeed in the same way fantasy players succeed on daily fantasy sports sites — by making accurate predictions. We scout, test, research and execute; it’s not that different than your typical daily fantasy player. If it sounds easy, then I suggest you not play because you don’t get it. It takes work and, yes, it takes skill. Like any complicated endeavor, it is equal parts art and science. More often than not we fail, but when we succeed, the rewards justify the sacrifice. The same principle applies to fantasy sports. And that’s why fantasy sports is growing so fast. That job, the job I love and that my team performs every day, is every sports fan’s fantasy.”
Mark Cuban: “There could be naysayers and more people who try to restrict access to fantasy games. Here’s what I have to say that: Good luck. Good luck standing in the way of the entire sports-loving population that enjoys the camaraderie that comes with playing fantasy sports. Good luck telling these folks that they are criminals for doing something that is its own American national pastime. And good luck telling us that we are incapable of deciding for ourselves what hobbies we can participate in. Fantasy sports is here to stay, and that is a good thing.”
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is defending the daily fantasy sports industry the Texas attorney general considers illegal. Addressing the Fantasy Sports Trade Association in Dallas on Wednesday, Cuban said Attorney General Ken Paxton’s opinion is nonbinding but still “kind of disappointing.” He dismissed the contention of Paxton and officials of other states that daily fantasy sports are a game of chance.
