When bettors place a wager on their phone, the calls are monitored by a company that assesses whether the call is coming from within the geographic boundaries of the state or city it’s supposed to be.
For example, if the bet is to come from within New Jersey’s borders, the geographic firm will send out an alert that the call is coming from within the Garden State.
The geo business can also ascertain more than where a call comes from. It can tell who is placing the call to bet, even if the person is a player from the NFL who is not supposed to wager at that moment, according to league policy.
The NFL Players Association recently alerted agents via email that certain players received suspensions from use of mobile betting apps while at work or traveling with teams, columnist Mike Florio wrote in ProFootballTalk.
“During the NFL’s investigations we have learned that these apps (like FanDuel) are highly sensitive and very sophisticated at tracking, among other things, user location to be sure that the people using the app are not ‘prohibited gamblers’ and/or that the person using the app is in a location where they are allowed to place bets on the app,” the email said.
“We have confirmed that some states monitor/audit FanDuel and the other gambling apps to ensure that the companies are in compliance with state law. Further the apps monitor gambler activity. It was as part of that monitoring that the NFL learned of the players using the apps at work in violation of NFL rules. At no time should players open or use any mobile gambling app while at work.”
Florio found it curious why the union sent the email to agents and not the offending players. The union, not the agents, should issue the warning.
It almost seems as if the union is warning agents so that the union can blame the agents for not warning the players, if the violations continue, Florio posited.
Then again for some players, no warning will work.
