{"id":53315,"date":"2017-06-27T18:00:14","date_gmt":"2017-06-28T01:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=53315"},"modified":"2020-10-09T09:29:53","modified_gmt":"2020-10-09T16:29:53","slug":"sports-bettor-goes-deadspin-10-million-defamation-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sports-bettor-goes-deadspin-10-million-defamation-suit\/","title":{"rendered":"Sports Bettor Goes After Deadspin with $10 Million Defamation Suit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vegas-based professional sports-better<\/a> and handicapper RJ Bell, who runs the tipster website Pregame.com, has launched a $10 million defamation case against sports site Deadspin.<\/p>\n

\"RJ
RJ Bell denies that his company profits from customers\u2019 losses or takes a commission from bookmakers and is suing Deadspin. But could an angry billionaire be financing the lawsuit? (Image: YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Proving his knack for backing a winner, Bell has hired lawyer Charles Harder, who represented Hulk Hogan in his $140 million invasion of privacy suit against Gawker, which published a sex-tape featuring the former wrestler.<\/p>\n

Gawker Media was declared bankrupt after that settlement and its assets were acquired by Univision, which reformed the company into Gizmodo Media. Gizmodo owns Deadspin.<\/p>\n

Bell\u2019s lawsuit claims that a Deadspin article, published in June 2016, entitled \u201cHow America\u2019s Favorite Sports Betting<\/a> Expert Turned A Sucker\u2019s Game Into An Industry,\u201d contains false and defamatory statements, including the assertion that Pregame takes commissions from sports books and profits from its clients\u2019 losses. Bell is also suing the author of the article, Ryan Goldberg.<\/p>\n

Disputed Figures<\/b><\/h2>\n

An offending paragraph from the article, which Pregame disputes, states:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a can\u2019t-miss business plan, and it pays off twice. First when customers buy the picks, and again when they fork over their money to sports books on those losing bets. This might explain why Pregame is so generous with discounts like \u2018bulk dollars\u2019 and half-price coupons, and why Bell trumpets the savings of subscriptions over single-game purchases. Pregame has every incentive to keep buyers in the fold, and keep them betting.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The article, which at the time of writing had not been removed from the Deadspin site, also claims that had \u201cyou bought and played all of Pregame\u2019s picks since 2011, you\u2019d be down $1,359,432,\u201d figures hotly disputed by the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Billionaire Bent on Revenge<\/b><\/h2>\n

Bell says that if he wins the lawsuit he will donate the money to the creation of scholarships for journalism students at UNLV, in order to promote a \u201ctrustworthy press,\u201d which, he said, is more important than his own financial restitution. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPregame.com \u2026 considers sacred the protections provided by the US Constitution to the practice of journalism,\u201d he said in an official statement. \u201cIt\u2019s my related belief that any journalist who maliciously lies must be held responsible. Not only because punishment is just in such cases, but more importantly because such disregard for journalist standards places the future rights of honest journalists at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hulk Hogan\u2019s lawsuit against Gawker was famously bankrolled by billionaire PayPal founder Peter Thiel, who wanted to put the site out of business as revenge for outing him in 2007 under the headline \u201cPeter Thiel is totally gay, people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bell declined to comment on whether Thiel had financed his lawsuit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vegas-based professional sports-better and handicapper RJ Bell, who runs the tipster website Pregame.com, has launched a $10 million defamation case against sports site Deadspin. Proving his knack for backing a winner, Bell has hired lawyer Charles Harder, who represented Hulk Hogan in his $140 million invasion of privacy suit against Gawker, which published a sex-tape […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":151625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,16,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSports Bettor Goes After Deadspin with $10 Million Defamation Suit<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"RJ Bell, owner of Pregame.com, to sue Deadspin for defamation, using the lawyer who took down Gawker.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sports-bettor-goes-deadspin-10-million-defamation-suit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sports Bettor Goes After Deadspin with $10 Million Defamation Suit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"RJ Bell, owner of Pregame.com, to sue Deadspin for defamation, using the lawyer who took down Gawker.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sports-bettor-goes-deadspin-10-million-defamation-suit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-06-28T01:00:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-09T16:29:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/hqdefault-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sports-bettor-goes-deadspin-10-million-defamation-suit\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sports-bettor-goes-deadspin-10-million-defamation-suit\/\",\"name\":\"Sports Bettor Goes After Deadspin with $10 Million Defamation Suit\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sports-bettor-goes-deadspin-10-million-defamation-suit\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sports-bettor-goes-deadspin-10-million-defamation-suit\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/hqdefault-2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-06-28T01:00:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-09T16:29:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"RJ Bell, owner of Pregame.com, to sue Deadspin for defamation, using the lawyer who took down Gawker.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sports-bettor-goes-deadspin-10-million-defamation-suit\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sports-bettor-goes-deadspin-10-million-defamation-suit\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sports-bettor-goes-deadspin-10-million-defamation-suit\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/hqdefault-2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/hqdefault-2.jpg\",\"width\":600,\"height\":450,\"caption\":\"RJ Bell denies that his company profits from customers\u2019 losses or takes a commission from bookmakers and is suing Deadspin. 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