NFL West Coast Open Thread, the fragility of the internet division

You may discuss the second slate of games here. Preview podcasts linked here, For the record and so you can laugh about them later, my over/under picks were Bears under 7 1/2 (+110), Giants under 7 1/2 (-115), and Vikings under 8 1/5 (+105).

Since we haven’t mentioned it yet, we should probably discuss the death of Football Outsiders, the hugely influential site that remained as a zombie for several months before disappearing entirely. Laura Wagner had the depressing story of its slow-motion destruction by an extremely shady Canadian cannabis-then-sports-gambling operation a little while back:

Most troublingly, Champion Gaming has been refusing for months to pay a group of freelance writers thousands of dollars for their work, work that directly contributed to Football Outsiders’ strong year. The timing of the press release stung these writers, as the company was touting the value of their work out of one side of its mouth while claiming financial hardship and refusing to pay them out of the other. “The absolute. Fucking. Gall,” wrote Football Outsiders contributor Bryan Knowles in a tweet responding to the press release. 

Champion Gaming’s inability to meet its financial obligations doesn’t end there. Champion Gaming has been consistently late paying staffers, borrowed money at what one financial expert called a “usurious” rate, and has seen its service agreement with TriNet, a payroll and benefits provider, abruptly terminated, leaving employees unsure of the status of their health insurance. Defector spoke to multiple contractors and current employees, reviewed internal company documents, and examined publicly available financial filings in order to piece together a picture of a company with significant debt and a trickle of revenue, and a shaky business plan that seems to revolve mostly around the buzzwords of the day. Champion Gaming describes itself as a “data and analytics company that provides predictive and prescriptive analytical models and win probability applications and statistics in the sports industry for teams, media, fans, and bettors.” What that business model actually looks like in practice isn’t so clear, even to those who do work for the company.

[…]

In early April, just weeks before Champion Gaming sent out its cheery press release, a group of four writers who had not been paid by the company went public with the issue. 

“Champion Gaming, the parent company for Football Outsiders, is refusing to pay the site’s contributors the money they have earned. Many of us have not been paid since December, with thousands of dollars in unpaid invoices piling up,” read an April 3 public statement signed by four Football Outsiders contributors—Bryan Knowles, Cale Clinton, Tom Strachan, and Roberts. “Despite repeated pleas to CEO Graham Simmonds and CFO Cam Wickham, and despite a written contract establishing clear rules and timing for payment, there has been no movement on this front. Dozens of articles, representing hundreds of hours of work, remain published and unpaid.” 

The statement went on to say that the writers would stop working until they were paid: “We cannot and will not continue to be exploited or treated as expendable.” Despite an outpouring of support online, they received no response from the company.

On April 17, just one day before the company’s press release was published, the same group of unpaid workers released an updated statement. They had still not been paid. They hadn’t been contacted at all by Champion Gaming. The statement said that the workers had begun to explore legal options to recoup their wages and had signed contracts with another football website, Underdog Fantasy, in order to make money in the meantime. 

AFICT none of these writers got another dime before the site went dark. Even by internet bust-out standards this was ugly.

Schatz at least has found a new venue for new and archival DVOA data, and he’s taking some of the old gang with him. (I don’t know what will happen to the trove of great writing on the FO site — including Knowles’s great dynasty and anti-dynasty series — but I would assume it’s been permanently lost.) Senior writer Mike Tanier joined the new sports section at the Messenger, and his typically useful season previews start here, and his week 1 preview is here. All things must etc., but it’s depressing to think how ephemeral stuff you write for the internet can be.