DraftKings Settles Connecticut Dispute for $3 Million

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Transcript

00:00let's start off with connecticut the sports betting operators sam the last thing that they

00:04want to do is pay any money to anyone we know that no offense fanduel no offense draft kings but

00:09you know they don't want to have to pay more in taxes they don't want to have to charge per

00:15you know per bet either but you know they don't want to lose money so three million not a ton

00:20of money to them but it seems like this was the right call by the state of connecticut sam what

00:25happened yeah in all fairness to draft kings and fanduel i don't think anyone likes losing money

00:31or having to pay more taxes so even though they're gambling companies they're not alone in that

00:35um but what happened in connecticut was draft kings just agreed to a settlement with the state to pay

00:41out three million dollars which as you know craig isn't a lot of money to them but they're going to

00:45pay it out to 7 000 uh customers in connecticut and the case revolves uh involves a casino deposit or

00:53a casino deposit bonus program that draft kings was running in the state that connecticut and their

00:59department of consumer protection came out and deemed was misleading a lot of times you know it's

01:04not just so cut and dry when you get a deposit if you place your 200 or whatever you expect a match

01:10but in this case you had to play through the money a couple of times you had to redeem it within 60 days

01:16these are all terms that drafting says it included when you click on the terms and conditions box

01:21but let's be frank nobody really reads them connecticut kind of deemed that this was misleading

01:26and then you have the 7 000 people who thought that they were going to get their bonus didn't get

01:31their bonus so now that three million dollars is essentially going to be restoring their bonus um

01:35pretty interesting in the settlement is that draft kings uh is kind of avoiding admitting doing

01:40any wrongdoing uh they did not admit that they did anything wrong they just kind of said okay let's

01:45agree to you know get this done with let's do what's going to satisfy the state on top of the

01:51three million they'll also be paying a fifty thousand dollar fine to the state which i think is

01:55a lot uh a lot better than saying they're wrong i think that's worth fifty thousand dollars to them

02:01and they're also going to or they say they're going to tighten up uh their risk-free and promotional

02:06terms and the way they kind of advertise in the state which is important because uh connecticut has

02:10taken issue with them before they actually sent a cease and desist a few years ago around one

02:15advertisement or a marketing campaign that said was violating this and that's kind of how we got here in

02:20general but zooming out uh this has been a big issue in the sports betting industry for a while

02:27now you have a lawsuit in massachusetts that draft kings is currently fighting which is a class action

02:32which says again that they were deceptive with the way that they advertised their bonuses that they

02:39required um you had to play through your deposit five times and get it within a certain number of days

02:45and again all this stuff wasn't cut and dry so that class action is again something that draft kings

02:49is fighting and then in baltimore or in maryland as well draft kings and fanduel are fighting a case

02:55against baltimore which again is centered around what they're calling allegedly misleading bonus

03:00programs that get people to deposit put their money in and not necessarily get what they were promised

03:05back and in this case with that lawsuit in baltimore they also say it gets people to become problem

03:10gamblers so a lot more on their plate i think for draft kings they want to just kind of check the box here

03:16give the three million dollars back it's not worth fighting and if you can get away with saying that

03:20hey we didn't do anything wrong and slap on the wrist then you're okay