FBI investigating daily fantasy sports websites after insider play scandal
- 8 years ago
BOSTON — The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S Department of Justice have begun an inquiry into the daily fantasy industry just over a week after sports sites DraftKings and FanDuel were caught in a scandal involving insider play.
The FBI began contacting several competitors in the contests, the players said, shortly after an employee of DraftKings admitted to releasing data before lineups for the start of the third week of N.F.L. games were set. The DraftKings employee then won $350,000 on rival site FanDuel. DraftKings said that the midlevel content manager did not have an advantage.
At this point, the FBI has been focusing its investigation on DraftKings, a Boston-based company. Players said agents were looking into whether the site encouraged and accepted deposits and bets from state where the contests were prohibited.
Daily fantasy sites, which are worth billions of dollars on paper, have surged in popularity. Players pay an entry fee, build a virtual roster of players from actual teams and win prizes, from $22 to $2 million, depending on the performance of their fantasy players in actual games.
The FBI also wanted to know if DraftKings passed on proprietary information or preyed on fantasy players in contests, players said.
DraftKings and FanDuel have said that their employees have played and won significant money on each other's sites.
In response to allegations of abuse of insider information, both sports sites have banned employees from competing in daily fantasy sports.
Lawmakers have been calling for more federal regulation and intensifying inquiries into the industry.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to TomoNews, where we animate the most entertaining news on the internets. Come here for an animated look at viral headlines, US news, celebrity gossip, salacious scandals, dumb criminals and much more! Subscribe now for daily news animations that will knock your socks off.
Visit our official website for all the latest, uncensored videos: http://us.tomonews.net
Check out our Android app: http://bit.ly/1rddhCj
Check out our iOS app: http://bit.ly/1gO3z1f
Get top stories delivered to your inbox everyday: http://bit.ly/tomo-newsletter
Stay connected with us here:
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/TomoNewsUS
Twitter @tomonewsus http://www.twitter.com/TomoNewsUS
Google+ http://plus.google.com/+TomoNewsUS/
Instagram @tomonewsus http://instagram.com/tomonewsus
The FBI began contacting several competitors in the contests, the players said, shortly after an employee of DraftKings admitted to releasing data before lineups for the start of the third week of N.F.L. games were set. The DraftKings employee then won $350,000 on rival site FanDuel. DraftKings said that the midlevel content manager did not have an advantage.
At this point, the FBI has been focusing its investigation on DraftKings, a Boston-based company. Players said agents were looking into whether the site encouraged and accepted deposits and bets from state where the contests were prohibited.
Daily fantasy sites, which are worth billions of dollars on paper, have surged in popularity. Players pay an entry fee, build a virtual roster of players from actual teams and win prizes, from $22 to $2 million, depending on the performance of their fantasy players in actual games.
The FBI also wanted to know if DraftKings passed on proprietary information or preyed on fantasy players in contests, players said.
DraftKings and FanDuel have said that their employees have played and won significant money on each other's sites.
In response to allegations of abuse of insider information, both sports sites have banned employees from competing in daily fantasy sports.
Lawmakers have been calling for more federal regulation and intensifying inquiries into the industry.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to TomoNews, where we animate the most entertaining news on the internets. Come here for an animated look at viral headlines, US news, celebrity gossip, salacious scandals, dumb criminals and much more! Subscribe now for daily news animations that will knock your socks off.
Visit our official website for all the latest, uncensored videos: http://us.tomonews.net
Check out our Android app: http://bit.ly/1rddhCj
Check out our iOS app: http://bit.ly/1gO3z1f
Get top stories delivered to your inbox everyday: http://bit.ly/tomo-newsletter
Stay connected with us here:
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/TomoNewsUS
Twitter @tomonewsus http://www.twitter.com/TomoNewsUS
Google+ http://plus.google.com/+TomoNewsUS/
Instagram @tomonewsus http://instagram.com/tomonewsus