Last weekβs sports betting Twitter feud between the man known as βJoey Knishβ and Dave Portnoy had an early 2000s WWE heel vs. heel vibe to it. Two guys with larger-than-life online profiles, two guys who arenβt afraid to say whatβs on their minds, two guys whose @ mentions sometimes could use a good moderator.
But yes. They went at it last week, and while Iβll admit I donβt have the full story — mostly because both Knish and Portnoyβs minders at Penn National Gaming didnβt return my numerous requests for comment — no one comes out of this one smelling like a rose.
A quick recap, then: On May 13, Knish tweets out βWelp, looks like no more βcanβt lose parlays for Uncle Kββ with a screenshot of an email he got from Barstool Sportsbook, which informed Knish that due to his βnon-recreational tendencies,β Knish will no longer be able to bet on promotional markets at Barstool.
Welp. Looks like no more βCanβt lose parlaysβ for Uncle K. pic.twitter.com/mwlm1OVxWz
— Joey Knish (@JoeyKnish22) May 13, 2021
This caused Knish to hold a Portnoy-esque βemergency press conference,β in which he called Portnoy and Big Cat βfraudsβ and βcorporate shillsβ and said βyou show a little bit of a pulse, you win a little bit of coin, you bet a little of non-recreational stuff, get ya outta here.β
EMERGENCY PRESS CONFERENCE: @BSSportsbook @stoolpresidente and @BarstoolBigCat EXPOSED FOR WHO THEY REALLY ARE. CORPORATE SHILLS WHO ONLY TAKE LOSING BETTORS TO LINE THEIR OWN POCKETS. https://t.co/3PrQG5OzTB pic.twitter.com/hYJ3cz4qsM
— Joey Knish (@JoeyKnish22) May 13, 2021
Portnoy — not a wallflower — took the bait, and responded to Knish on the Dave Portnoy Show.
βTheyβre sharps. Think of it as a card counter. We did a bad job, from seeing, like, the Penn response, we donβt {inaudible} recreational gamblers? You canβt have card counters. Thatβs universal. Itβs the equivalent of a card counter,β Portnoy said. βWe do these promos that are meant to give players great odds, but then thereβs a group of people who use those odds, can bet them both ways, multiple accounts, things of that nature, which guarantee you win — not illegal, theoretically, but illegal with terms and conditions of what we say, but thatβs how you go bankrupt, allowing that type of behavior.βΒ
Portnoy then went on to say there is no other sportsbook that advocates more for the player than Barstool and that Knish was using βbotsβ to further his profit-making.
Knish responded, saying he never bet a bonus, never bet an odds boost, doesnβt use bots, and just made regular olβ bets before he got the email from Barstool.
So thatβs the story, and most of Gambling Twitterβ’ stood behind Knish.
But β¦ as I said in the beginning, no one is really escaping this one scot-free. Letβs rank them, from least wrong to most wrong.
Joey Knish
Hereβs the thing: Knishβs story was short on detail. Iβm assuming since he was labeled as a player with βnon-recreational tendenciesβ by Barstool, heβs also been limited in what he can bet. Iβm assuming this, but thatβs certainly not made clear. What is clear is that heβs been banned from the promo markets at Barstool, and speaking as someone who is banned from the promo markets at PointsBet, I gotta say β¦ I get the position of the sportsbooks here.
For better or worse (mostly worse) most sportsbooks offer these promo come-ons on a daily basis, trying to gain new players. The goal for them is to lure us in. And if youβre lured in β¦ well, why should they continue to offer you enhanced odds? Again, coming at this from the sportsbook perspective.Β
Is this good customer service? No, itβs not. I was banned from PointsBet promos after winning somewhere in the neighborhood of $5,000 over a period of months betting their NBA player prop promos. Iβd max out every bet they offered (usually $100) and depending on how confident I was, Iβd either let the bet ride or arbitrage it out at another book. Then PointsBet banned me, I was as irritated as Knish, and now PointsBet doesnβt get anywhere near the amount of business I used to give it.
Now, Knish said he didnβt even bet promos, does say he won a little bit of βcoin,β and was banned from the promo market. Bottom line? Without knowing what Knishβs bets have been limited to — if at all — then thereβs a little bit of βmehβ to his very loud complaint.
Penn National
Attention sportsbooks of America who utilize the so-called βEuropeanβ model in which successful players get limited to ridiculous levels: Just stop. By driving away successful players, you might be helping out your bottom line for the moment, but long-term youβre just going to continue to get bad PR like this. Itβs a terrible way to run a business. At minimum, set maximum wagering amounts that everyone has access to. Be more like Circa, be more like Colorado’s Sky Ute, be more like the offshores youβre trying to replace.Β
Barstool Sportsbook Customer Service Copywriters
This whole βnon-recreationalβ thing is bananas. Theyβre saying Knish isnβt using his account recreationally. His tendencies tilt toward βnon-recreational.β Yeah, um, STFU Barstool. The definition of βrecreationβ per Google is βactivity done for enjoyment when one is not working.β
Listen: Iβm not a pro gambler, not a pro sports bettor, but I certainly do not look at my betting (and DFS play) as βrecreation.β Sure, itβs fun, but when Iβm putting money down on something, it very quickly becomes βwork.β You know who agrees? The IRS. So letβs not pretend sports betting is akin to needlepoint or scrapbooking.
The whole idea of Barstool Sportsbook
Iβm usually naive until I canβt be naive anymore, and I thought that maybe Barstool Sportsbook would live up to the anti-establishment, take no prisoners, give zero fβs mentality of Barstool Sports. And β¦ nope.
Dave Portnoy
To quote Robert DeNiroβs Jimmy Conway from Goodfellas, Portnoy was out of order.Β
Knish says he never played a promo market, never bet an odds boost, and for Portnoy to liken him to a βcard counter,β to accuse him of betting both sides of a market at Barstool (something even the most amateurish of bettors would know not to do), to say Knish is using a βbotβ to gain an edge (whatever the hell that means) — no, no, no, no, no, no, you insulted him a little bit, Dave, you got a little out of order yourself.Β
Listen: Barstool and Penn National (and every other sportsbook) have the right to limit anyone as they see fit, and players have a right to publicly shame them for it. Hopefully a few sportsbooks operating in this manner will realize it may not be the best long-term strategy. In the meantime β¦ please bet recreationally, or, failing that, lose a ton.