Appeals Court Reinstates Fantasy Sports Defamation Suit

An appeals court has reinstated a defamation lawsuit filed by a fantasy sports influencer against a critic who tweeted that he is a “con man.” 

Alvin Zeidenfeld, who is more popularly known as Al Smizzle and the Smizz, offers advice on how to win fantasy sports. He reportedly has 50,000 Twitter followers.  

The case concerns an exchange of insults between Smizzle and David Stetler, whose company Fantasy Cruncher, also comments on fantasy sports, according to Metropolitan News-Enterprise. 

In response to a tweet by Zeidenfeld, Stetler tweeted, “Smizz is a total fraud and this is probably the 10th lie he has told today. [Expletive] con man.” 

Court of Appeals Justice Helen I. Bendix overruled a Los Angeles Superior Court ruling that threw out the case, saying that the allegation against Smizzle could be “per se libelous. 

Normally, the more hyperbolic a charge is, the more it is likely to be seen as opinion and subject to protection.

But Bendix wrote that the comment could “reasonably be viewed as serious, fact-based attacks on Zeidenfeld’s integrity and not hyperbole.”

 

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