Key Takeaways
The latest Saturday Night Live TV commercial parody took aim at online sports betting apps with vicious glee. The two-minute spot began with familiar-sounding exultations of “the satisfaction of placing a bet and watching it hit big” and “the exhilaration of an upset only you saw coming.”
Then it rolled darkly over the line.
Saturday Night Live cast member Kenan Thompson starred in a mock DraftKings commercial this weekend. (Image: YouTube)Cast member Andrew Dismukes portrayed that friend “we all have” who, said cast member Kenan Thompson, “is on the verge of losing everything his house, his family, his entire life.”
And that’s when guest host Shane Gillis stepped in to deliver the twist: “Now you can bet on exactly how he’ll lose it all with Rock Bottom Kings … the only app that lets you take prop bets about how your degenerate gambler friend is finally going to hit rock bottom.”
Will it be going double-or-nothing on a random WNBA game, or betting his child’s college fund on the coin toss?
Gillis drove the skewers even deeper by giving odds on how low your friend will stoop to recover his lost fortune:
Taking a life insurance policy out on his own mother (+450)Setting up a GoFundMe falsely claiming that he has leukemia (+750)Faking his own death, but immediately getting caught by using an app to gamble with (+100,000)The fake spot concluded with Gillis trying to convince the viewer that such prop bets were completely acceptable, “Because you’re not a loser, your friend is.”
Check it out
Many fans have complained about bombardment by gambling ads while watching NFL games ads that mislead the viewer about how easy it is to convert a hunch into a windfall using the apps.
Though were broadcast during this year’s Super Bowl two from FanDuel and one from DraftKings they were obviously the target of SNL s satire. (When the commercial revealed the faux app’s logo, it bore a striking resemblance to DraftKings .)
FanDuel and rival DraftKings control about 70% of the U.S. sports betting market.
brettdanzer.com
