Imago
Source: IMAGO
Imago
Source: IMAGO
Many times, we have seen teams that call themselves the best team in the league and talk about wanting to make the postseason, but don’t make an effort. All they do is try to portray that they are something they are not. Well, here is a similar case involving 2 MLB teams that got duped by one such “company.”
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The Athletic wrote a report on how the Angels and the Diamondbacks were duped by a company called Cremily. The report has testimonies from former employees, and one of those statements said, “The Diamondbacks lost out on $2 million.”
Cremily first gained attention during Arizona’s 2023 NLDS celebration after they beat the Dodgers. While the Diamondback players were celebrating in the pool at Chase Field, we could see the tiles covered with Cremily logos and a large popsicle structure. By that time, the brand had already secured naming rights and promised to pay around $2.3 million over 5 seasons.
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That exposure also gave them a big deal with the Angels, which was around 3.45 million over five years, with in-game promotions. So the total deal with the Angels and the Diamondbacks came to around $5.75 million. The Deal with the Diamondbacks included pool naming rights, signage, and product stands inside Chase Field concourses.
They had also pitched to teams like the New York Knicks, the Boston Celtics, and there were also names like the Red Sox and the Mets involved.
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Arizona Diamondbacks left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr., center, falls into the pool after the Diamondbacks defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-2 in Game 3 to win a baseball NL Division Series, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
Troubles started to come up in 2023, and the Angels went unpaid between July and September. Invoices were sent, but no payment came up, and the Los Angeles Angels later claimed over $401,700 in missed payments. The Arizona Diamondbacks also claimed that they were owed $358,053.78.
But looking at the statement by the employee and the other reports, the total due to the MLB teams is said to be around $2.4 million.
The lawsuit filed in 2024 accused Cremily of failing contractual obligations. Court filings also referenced product issues, including third-party ice cream sold under Cremily’s branding.
But reports suggest that in 2025, many of the disputes were settled privately.
At the center of all this was Steven Delaportas, previously linked to a $2 million fraud judgment in 2008. He also pleaded guilty in 2006 to bankruptcy concealment tied to business financial misrepresentation.
Employees described him as persuasive. One employee said, “He’s got the ability to sort of sell himself to people,” which helped him secure such big deals despite the company’s lack of revenue streams.
Internally, staff reported “ghost job” conditions where over 50 employees had limited work. One employee even pointed out, saying, “We were just collecting paychecks and sitting around.”
The product itself struggled badly with reports of freezer burn, machine failures, and inconsistent texture issues. Some employees even said that, “(It was) just ice cream. And they were selling that as authentic French frozen yogurt, which was also keto.”
By the middle of 2023, due to a lack of funding and the whistleblower emails, internal concerns were exposed. Operations stopped, the brand folded, and employees lost jobs without severance, and one employee described this time and said, “I cried every single day at work.”
The MLB, in recent years, has been going through a phase where the organization of a couple of teams or players is getting caught in crossfire. The teams or the organization as a whole will have to be very careful as to who they make deals with in the future.
The MLB faced a similar case a few years back
Major League Baseball started to expand its betting ties with companies after the legalization across multiple states. They made a partnership with DraftKings in 2015, and the deal included odds integrations and in-game promotions during broadcasts. By 2021, the league’s revenue from sponsorships and media deals crossed $10 billion.
Fans began placing bets tied to live games, including pitch outcomes and scoring sequences. This growth made many fans question the integrity of the game.
That concern sharpened after the Houston Astros scandal exposed sign-stealing methods using cameras and signals. MLB confirmed the Astros used illegal systems during their 2017 championship-winning season. The team defeated the Dodgers in seven games, including a 13-12 Game 5 thriller.
Investigations led to a $5 million fine and loss of two draft picks, which still looks like a slap on the wrist. But this is when many fans really started to question the fairness of the game.
Soon after, bettors filed lawsuits claiming losses from games influenced by unfair advantages. Plaintiffs argued MLB promoted betting while failing to prevent known integrity violations across seasons. Claims pointed to many Astros home games, citing that the odds were changing suspiciously as the game progressed.
However, courts dismissed most cases, stating that betting losses cannot be directly recovered under existing laws. Although the MLB did not take any financial penalties, the trust between fans and the organization took a major hit.
The situation mirrored cases like Cremily, where trust and money collapsed under hidden problems. Both cases showed how quickly confidence breaks when systems fail behind strong public images.
