After LeBron James teased making his “Second Decision,” many were quick to speculate that the Los Angeles Lakers star would be revealing his retirement plans.
Lo and behold, James’ announcement didn’t have anything to do with his career — at least not his basketball one — with the spoof of his 2010 free agency reveal turning out to be an ad for Hennessy.
The advertisement was lame, albeit largely predictable, as it followed the same formula as the faux press conference the 4-time NBA MVP held for Amazon Prime Day earlier this year. It paled in comparison, however, to FanDuel’s social graphic following Tuesday’s “decision,” which proclaimed, “LeBron is not retiring” with the “not” portion of the text written in a miniscule font.
Look, we get it; FanDuel presumably had a social graphic regarding James’ retirement cued up just in case the 40-year-old forward actually announced such plans. And rather than let it go to waste, the sportsbook seemingly decided to still put it to use, inserting a tiny “not” as a failed attempt to be funny while simultaneously trolling its audience.
But while we certainly aren’t opposed to having some fun on social media, it’s unclear what FanDuel was attempting to accomplish with its misleading graphic. Was this purely an attempt at humor, which would mark a departure from the sportsbook’s typically more straightforward social media posts? Was it merely a tactic to drive engagement, backlash be damned?
It’s impossible to say, but if it was the latter, then mission accomplished. As of Wednesday morning, FanDuel’s post has been viewed more than 14 million times, netting more than 1,500 replies and nearly 2,000 retweets.
Aside from customers asking to have their accounts unbanned, many of those replies have come from social media users who were just as confused by the purpose of FanDuel’s post as we are. There were also some who called attention to the potential problem of sportsbooks making such misleading posts, considering the rush from bettors to act on breaking news.
Ultimately, FanDuel isn’t the first sports brand to have a failed attempt at humor, nor will it be the last. Still it would be interesting to learn what the sportsbook was trying to accomplish with this particular post and whether or not it feels it succeeded.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.