Thrive Fantasy App Under Fire: Payout Debacle Investigated

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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:03 All right, so let's start off-- and there may be some people

00:06 unfamiliar with the story of an app called Thrive Fantasy,

00:11 which essentially is sort of like a daily fantasy app that's

00:16 been out there for a few years.

00:18 All of a sudden, on social media,

00:21 there was a groundswell of people

00:23 saying that they had a hard time receiving their payouts

00:27 from Thrive Fantasy.

00:29 And by the way, this is not recent.

00:31 This is going back six, eight months, full transparency.

00:34 I even received an email from somebody watching the show

00:39 saying that they were having issues as well

00:40 and would be happy to talk to me about it as well.

00:43 And naturally, I referred to you guys at Legal Sports Report.

00:45 I suppose this individual had spoken to them too.

00:48 So look, I don't know, Sam, what's exactly going on here.

00:51 But at the very least, the CEO of the company

00:54 did release some statement.

00:55 So I don't know if I missed any part of the story.

00:58 If I did, please fill our viewers and listeners in

01:00 and now update us with the statement that is being made.

01:05 Yeah, Craig, you're spot on with your recount

01:07 and everything that happened.

01:08 This daily fantasy sports app Thrive Fantasy,

01:12 which operates in that Pick'em space, which really appeals

01:14 to people who want sports betting or a product closer

01:18 to sports betting than perhaps a season-long contest

01:21 or a daily lineup contest where you're

01:23 making these over/under selections,

01:25 things of that nature.

01:26 They-- reports came out a few months ago

01:29 that they weren't paying some people out.

01:31 Like you said, it started to swell on social media.

01:34 At the time, the company kind of didn't really address it much.

01:37 And then it became bigger.

01:38 Legal Sports Report did several stories on it.

01:40 My colleague Mike Mazzeo has been sort of at the forefront

01:43 of this coverage.

01:44 But now you have them finally talking,

01:46 coming forward with some kind of statement,

01:47 basically saying they're investigating several accounts

01:51 that either perhaps took advantage of their Pick'em

01:54 product and also saying at the same time

01:57 that they were subject to a bank and check fraud

02:00 scheme, which froze their accounts that they used

02:04 to process withdrawals and immediately impacted

02:07 kind of the ability for people to get money out.

02:09 So it's a couple of different things they're saying.

02:12 It's like on the one hand, some accounts

02:14 are under investigation for perhaps taking advantage of--

02:18 I don't know whether it's mispriced products

02:20 or something like that.

02:21 It's a skill-based app.

02:22 So it's hard to really argue that kind of thing

02:26 that you would do with sports betting, where

02:28 we have bad lines, that sort of thing.

02:30 And then at the same time, you have them saying

02:32 that they've essentially been hacked,

02:33 and that's why they can't pay out money.

02:35 Now, some customers have received money.

02:38 Some customers are down as much as five figures

02:42 that are missing.

02:43 We've heard reports that they've gotten maybe small increments

02:46 of that money.

02:47 Other customers have been reached out

02:49 to send personal emails that say, rest assured,

02:51 your funds are safe.

02:52 We're still looking into it.

02:53 So this is sort of them trying to buy some time, maybe

02:56 save some face on this front.

02:58 And at the same time, the company,

03:00 it came out that they were trying to raise capital

03:03 pretty much during this entire process

03:05 over the last couple of months.

03:06 Their goal is to be profitable by the third quarter

03:09 of this year.

03:10 I don't know how much this impacts that.

03:13 I would imagine bad PR, bad press

03:15 from this whole situation.

03:17 But this is a company that had a lot of investors behind it,

03:20 which is not uncommon in the sports betting or fantasy space

03:23 where you have kind of this,

03:25 selling this idea that we'll be able to turn

03:27 all these customers profitable by a certain date.

03:29 But now you have it coming out with their CEO

03:31 trying to save face and people still don't have their funds.

03:34 So it's gonna be something to watch going forward.

03:36 I'm sure more will develop in this story.

03:40 There've been multiple attorney generals

03:42 in New York and North Carolina

03:44 that customers went out and contacted and said,

03:47 hey, we can't get our funds.

03:48 Can you please help us?

03:49 I'm told that the company has not engaged with them so far.

03:52 There's potential lawsuits pending from different customers,

03:56 maybe class action situation where you get everyone involved

03:59 but it's not looking great for Thrive Fantasy.

04:01 You can say it's not thriving right now.

04:03 (upbeat music)

04:06 (bells chiming)

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