Fire Strike 2

What is Fire Strike 2?

More than a year after then-Houston Astros pitcher Lance McCullers faced menacing threats from an exasperated bettor, questions remain about whether the proposed bans will serve as a meaningful deterrent to agitated sportsbook customers. An investigation later determined that the bettor resided overseas.

Since the Supreme Court’s PASPA decision in 2018, there has been an uptick on harassment against athletes from bettors. The collection of incidents, in the view of the industry, is typically construed as both troubling and prevalent. Against a backdrop of alarming threats in numerous sports, perhaps the most disconcerting occurred at the hands of Benjamin “Parlay” Patz, a California bettor.

Approximately 15 months after the high court’s ruling, Patz sent a series of explicit messages to four members of MLB’s Tampa Bay Rays, threatening to “sever” their necks open. Accused by federal investigators of targeting more than 300 accounts of pro and college athletes, Patz pleaded guilty in 2021 to transmitting threats in interstate or foreign commerce. Although a judge ordered Patz to undergo mental health treatment and abstain from gambling, he did not sentence the bettor to prison.

What is Fire Strike 2?

Hurst is also a board member at Global Gaming Women, giving her firsthand experience of how networks, mentorship and role models can help women advance. She was previously recognised in iGB’s Most Influential Women list in 2024.

Another MIW 2024 alum, Lois Bright, who also founded of Women in Gaming Africa and co-founded Gaming Advisory Partners, says the group’s key achievement has been making women visible and helping them to progress into leadership roles.

“I think it’s given a boost to women in the sense that they have a platform for tangible change, not just them as individuals, but collectively as a movement,” Bright says.

What is Fire Strike 2?

One interesting nugget surrounds weekend figures at Kalshi, where volume on Sunday only surpassed prior daily activity by $34 million, BofA data shows. Typically, Sunday volume for the quarter dwarfs that of College Football Saturdays due to the voracious demand for NFL offerings. BofA analyst Shaun Kelley attributes the irregularity to the possibility that Kalshi is “over indexing” on college sports.

Kelley also cited improvements at Robinhood as a possible factor for the regression at Kalshi. Just before the NFL season, Robinhood took a minority stake in Crypto.com and struck a deal to begin routing NFL contracts to OG.com, the site’s regulated prediction market platform.

A 40% weekly increase at Crypto.com combined with the attrition at Kalshi may reflect the enormity of the Robinhood deal, according to Kelley.