Major League Baseball’s increasingly complicated relationship with legalized sports gambling is back under the microscope, and this time Philadelphia Phillies superstar Bryce Harper is caught directly in the middle of it.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Rep. Paul Tonko of New York and Rep. Valerie Foushee of North Carolina have called on MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association to prohibit players from participating in sportsbook promotional programs following controversy surrounding a personalized Harper video that was allegedly sent by FanDuel to one of its VIP gamblers.
The problem is Harper says he never agreed to promote FanDuel in the first place.
The two time National League MVP said the video originated as a Cameo request he received in November 2024. According to Harper, he was asked to record what he believed was simply a personal holiday message for a fan named Terry Thompson. Harper says he had no knowledge that FanDuel was behind the request, no affiliation with the sportsbook and never authorized the company to turn his message into gambling related promotional material.
Thompson is now at the center of litigation involving the sports betting industry. He alleges that he lost nearly $2 million gambling and that FanDuel’s VIP program encouraged his excessive wagering. According to reporting on the case, the personalized Harper video was sent to Thompson through his FanDuel VIP host as part of the company’s efforts to maintain its relationship with the high spending customer.
Harper publicly pushed back after learning how the video had been used, saying he would never have recorded it had he known its intended purpose.
That distinction is particularly important because MLB rules restrict players from endorsing or promoting sports betting companies. Harper maintains that he wasn’t endorsing FanDuel at all and that the sportsbook added its branding to a video that had been presented to him as an ordinary Cameo request.
Now Congress wants answers.
Blumenthal, Tonko and Foushee sent letters to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, MLBPA executive director Bruce Meyer and FanDuel CEO Christian Genetski demanding changes to policies surrounding sportsbook marketing and VIP programs.
“Despite clear harms that VIP programs pose to bettors, MLB and MLBPA continue to disregard fan safety by permitting partnerships with sportsbooks operating these programs,” the lawmakers wrote. “We demand an immediate end to this policy.”
The lawmakers are asking MLB and the union to clarify whether active players should be allowed to have promotional relationships with sportsbooks and whether current rules adequately protect both players and vulnerable gamblers. They are also seeking assurances that players will be educated about how their names, images and likenesses could potentially be used by gambling operators, particularly through VIP programs.
The congressional group has requested responses from MLB, the MLBPA and FanDuel by August 24.
The Harper situation exposes an uncomfortable contradiction that baseball has been wrestling with since legalized sports betting exploded across the United States.
Players are prohibited from betting on baseball, and MLB has aggressively disciplined players who violate those rules. At the same time, legalized gambling has become increasingly visible throughout the sport, from sportsbook partnerships and television advertising to betting odds incorporated into baseball programming. FanDuel betting content, including odds involving Harper himself, has appeared through MLB related programming this season.
That creates an increasingly thin line between protecting the integrity of the game and profiting from the gambling ecosystem surrounding it.
FanDuel has said it is reviewing its consumer protection policies and examining additional safeguards concerning problem gambling. The company has not disputed that the Harper video reached Thompson, but Harper has been unequivocal that he never knowingly participated in a sportsbook promotion.
For MLB, that may ultimately be the larger issue.
Harper isn’t being accused of gambling on baseball or intentionally violating league rules. Instead, one of the sport’s biggest stars appears to have become the face of a gambling promotion without realizing that’s what he was recording.
And with Congress now demanding action, what began as one personalized video could force MLB and the Players Association to take a much harder look at exactly how close baseball wants its players standing to the sportsbook window.