Harper says FanDuel used his video without consent in VIP case

Bryce Harper said he never agreed to let FanDuel use a Cameo video he recorded in November 2024 for commercial purposes, adding that he would not have made it had he known how the sportsbook planned to deploy it. His remarks came Monday, just before his scheduled Home Run Derby appearance, after the video became part of a broader fight over how sportsbooks court and keep their biggest customers.

The message was tied to Terry Thompson, a FanDuel customer who, in court papers, said he wagered $18.5 million with the company since 2020 and lost about $2 million. The personalized clip, cited in the lawsuit, opened with Harper saying, “Hey, Terry? What’s up, brother?” and referred to “your host Bryttanni from FanDuel,” identified in reporting as Bryttanni Morgan. Thompson filed suit in Pennsylvania state court on March 24, 2026, naming FanDuel, Morgan, DraftKings, the NFL and Genius Sports as defendants.

The case has pushed a national spotlight onto VIP sportsbook programs, which are built around retention. Operators typically assign dedicated hosts to high-value customers and use personalized outreach, gifts and exclusive perks to keep them betting. In Thompson’s suit, the alleged problem is not simply aggressive marketing but the use of those relationships to encourage continued wagering even as warning signs of addiction emerged.

FanDuel has said it trains employees to recognize and flag signs of problem gambling and offers responsible-gaming tools such as deposit, wager and time limits. The company also says it is committed to responsible gaming through employee training, advocacy, ambassadors and industry partnerships. That defense lands in the middle of a wider industry debate over whether VIP programs, which are designed to deepen engagement with the most valuable gamblers, can cross the line into problematic inducement.

The Harper episode gives the dispute a public face, but the underlying issue is bigger than one celebrity video. Thompson’s allegations and FanDuel’s response have become part of a growing examination of the machinery that keeps big bettors active: personal hosts, tailored perks and repeated outreach that can turn a loyalty program into a pressure system for vulnerable gamblers.