Shams Charania faces criticism over impact of NBA draft reports

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NBA reporter Shams Charania is being criticized for his reporting on the NBA Draft and his ties to sports betting.

Charania did a lot of reporting ahead of Thursday’s draft, as you’d expect from senior NBA reporter The Athletics. One of his reports in particular, however, raised some questions. On Thursday afternoon, Charania reported that Scoot Henderson is gaining serious momentum to become No. 2 overall for the Charlotte Hornets.

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Sources: Scoot Henderson is gaining momentum at No. 2 with the Charlotte Hornets in the NBA Draft tonight. The Hornets were torn between Henderson and Brandon Miller last week. The team has final meetings today to make a decision.

Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 22, 2023

The tweet caused a huge shift in betting odds over who would become No. 2, as Brandon Miller was previously seen as the favourite. Charanias’ report no doubt led many to bet on Henderson as a pick. This is where the conflict of interest comes in, as Charania hosts a show for FanDuel TV and his Twitter bio lists him as a FanDuel partner.

Even before the Hornets made their choice, some had questions that Charania had a conflict of interest between his reporting and driving traffic to FanDuel. These questions only intensified after the Hornets finally drafted Miller, with some outright wondering if Charania had wanted to make FanDuel money by influencing people to bet on Henderson being drafted. #2.

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it’s kinda crazy that Shams gets paid by Fanduel to do some promo for them between two tweets like this that don’t say much but help change the odds and place more bets https:// t.co/n4T0boapDH

sreekar (@sreekyshooter) June 22, 2023

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shams (employed by fanduel) tweets this

tons of people putting money on scoot at #2 sports betting like fanduel (odds changed massively immediately after the tweet)

hornets don’t draft

fanduel makes a ton of money

isn’t that just blatant fraud??? https://t.co/Vf6yKFOrYu

mansur (@mansurshaheen) June 23, 2023

The speculation prompted a response from FanDuel, who said in a statement that FanDuel was not aware of any news that Shams is announcing on its platforms.

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FanDuel breaks silence on @ShamsCharania Scoot to punters reaction #2 in a statement:

FanDuel is not aware of any news that Shams announces on its platforms.

More to come on @ActionNetworkHQ.

Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) June 23, 2023

In all likelihood, Charania just shared a report that didn’t turn out to be accurate. It wasn’t even like he was guaranteeing that Henderson would be selected by the Hornets. Yet his dual roles present a rather awkward conflict of interest.

Charania has already received a lot of criticism from the NBA, so it’s not necessarily new.

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