Is Ontario having a Marty Supreme moment?
Who knew table tennis had such high stakes?
Timothée Chalamet is sweeping awards season for his role as Marty Mauser, a ruthless young table tennis star who will do anything to win. But Ontario has its very own Marty Supreme–esque subplot brewing, and we may need to get Crave on this one.
The online gambling platform FanDuel Canada now faces a $350,000 fine for reportedly failing to stop or report suspicious table tennis matches that appeared to be fixed. This is what we call a hustle, and while it may be illegal, it would make for some riveting CanCon.
Related: How Shark Tank crank Kevin O’Leary broke into Hollywood with Marty Supreme
According to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, FanDuel Canada permitted 144 bets from three Ontario-based player accounts during the Czech Table Tennis Star Series, which occurred last year in October and November.
Per the CBC’s reporting, “The AGCO says some of the signs included abrupt shifts in wagering behaviour, a concentration of bets on athletes losing their matches, an implausible and near-perfect win-rate, and other unusual or suspicious activity.”
In an email sent to the CBC, a FanDuel representative denied that the company had knowingly allowed any wrongdoing.
Now that Kevin O’Leary has gotten a ping-pong movie warm-up, should he play the head of the AGCO or the top boss at FanDuel?
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Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
