​While sports leagues face questions over integrity resulting from their embrace of sports betting operators, top media voices are also heavily intertwined with these companies. One such host is Bill Simmons, whose deal with FanDuel amounts to the sportsbook “buying his silence,” according to sports betting reporter Danny Funt.Funt, who reported on FanDuel’s close partnership with Simmons’ company, The Ringer, in his recent book Everybody Loses, argued in a recent podcast appearance that Simmons is unique from other high-profile hosts who push gambling to their audiences because, unlike Barstool’s Dave Portnoy or ESPN’s Pat McAfee, he claims to be a “defiant truth-teller” whose commentary is more high-brow. In reality, Funt argued, Simmons often spends even less airtime covering sports betting scandals than his counterparts.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“A big part of the Bill Simmons myth-making has been, he is this defiant truth-teller who calls it like he sees it. He’s not afraid to call out Roger Goodell, he’s not afraid to call out his bosses at ESPN, he will give you the unvarnished truth,” Funt said on The r/BillSimmons Podcast.“And in light of that, I just felt it was worth laying it all out there that the way he talks about gambling … where he is the exact opposite of a truth-teller. It’s beyond conspicuous that he has next to nothing to say about one indictment after another, when a player is indicted for fixing games… he has nothing to say about athletes coming out and saying, ‘I’m dealing with a gambling addiction that’s ruined my life.’”In recent months, multiple athletes have faced allegations of betting on themselves or their teams, including the NBA’s Jontay Porter and Terry Rozier as well as Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby. Beneath that, Funt noted, many players and coaches also face harassment and death threats that are constantly in the news.But Funt and many of Simmons’ listeners have observed a noticeable absence of commentary on these stories on his show. The result, Funt said, is tantamount to “selling out,” and has the knock-on effect of communicating to the wider sports audience that the stories are not worthy of coverage, when in reality Simmons may be avoiding them because FanDuel would prefer he didn’t.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdded Funt:“I just think it’s embarrassing and totally at odds with how he presents himself, and does real harm, both the way that he’s encouraging people to play sucker bets, but also as an important voice who apparently is, like, one of Barack Obama’s favorite (podcasters) and someone who a lot of people respect, [and] is selling out on this issue to a profound extent.”While Funt, in his book and in the podcast appearance, acknowledged some minimal coverage of the Porter and Rozier scandals from Simmons, he argued that FanDuel is “buying the silence” of Simmons, just as competitors like DraftKings are wi