The Bachelor is a little bit of a phenomena in U.S. TV. It’s a show so many can’t wait for as it takes a slightly twisted look at the dating lives of the very well off. As the new season kicks off with Bachelor Peter Weber trying to find love from 30 lovely women, a former contestant on the show is going through her own scandal on Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) betting site DraftKings.
Bachelor in Paradise collusion on DraftKings
We have to start with the gambling scandal, because that’s really our beat. Jade Roper Tolbert, a former Bachelor contestant, won the Milly Maker tournament over the NFL wild-card weekend. She tweeted her enthusiasm over the win.
Doesn’t even feel real over here! Officially speechless. LIKE WHAAAAAAAAT. 🤯🥳🥳🥳😵 https://t.co/7yMFZtI4Au
— Jade Roper Tolbert (@jadelizroper) January 6, 2020
Problem is, the DraftKings community of players quickly suspected that Tolbert may have been colluding with her husband, former Bachelorette contestant Tanner Tolbert, in an effort to win the $1 million prize of the tournament.
The evidence is pretty damning as well. Both of the Tolbert’s made the maximum 150 entries allowed in the tournament, each costing $20 a pop. They also had plenty of evidence of collusion in their picked rosters, as they had a healthy spread of QBs chosen and minimal overlap.
These suspicions weren’t helped by fellow Bachelorette former contestant Chris Randone, who congratulated Tanner on Twitter for winning. He has since deleted the tweet.
After first congratulating Jade Tanner on winning the million, and offering her a rose, DraftKings has also change its tune. On Monday they released this statement:
Statement from @DraftKings on brewing controversy involving former Bachelor contestant winning $1 million contest: "We take the integrity and fairness of our contests very seriously and are looking into this matter."
— David Payne Purdum (@DavidPurdum) January 6, 2020
Collusion, including using two accounts to gain the best chance of winning a tournament, is against DraftKings terms and conditions. The entire Bachelor community will be hoping the Tanner’s have a perfectly logical explanation for this whole thing.
Bachelor Tyler cuts down the field
Meanwhile, season 24 of The Bachelor has kicked off, with Tyler quickly cutting several out of the field and meeting up with his former flame Hannah. If you’re looking to bet on the season, good luck, we couldn’t find any sites currently offering odds (let us know if you do.) Interestingly, this is the first season in a while where the outcome may still be undetermined.
RealitySteve.com, a site known to have full Bachelor spoilers before the season premier airs, is still left clueless to how this season will end. He writes:
“The bottom line is I don’t have the ending yet, but I’m pretty sure there’s a good reason why I don’t…
“The only thing I did know about this season was that it wasn’t a normal ending. Meaning it wasn’t ‘here’s two women, choose one, dump the other, and leave the final rose ceremony as a couple.’ So on Nov. 17th in Australia when the finale was filmed, that’s not what happened.”
Steve goes on to speculate that based on what he knows, Peter is either with Madison, Hannah Ann, turned down both, or has chosen a non-contestant by the time of the finale. What he knows about the season leans towards Hannah Ann being the final pick, but with the show being insistent that the final outcome still hasn’t been decided, it’s still undetermined.
So if you do find a site offering betting lines, Hannah Ann could be a solid bet. But considering this season is the first to be unspoiled in a long time, don’t bet it too heavily, something fishy could be up.
