Seth Vigdor
By now you’ve probably heard about the Daily Fantasy Sports scandal that is turning the Daily Fantasy Sports world upside down and for obvious reasons. The investigation into the scandal, which was first reported by the New York Times on Sunday, is starting to heat up.
Here are some of the latest developments.
DraftKings and FanDuel have released a joint statement (which is weird in itself) stating that they do not have any evidence that their employees misused any data to turn in a profit. I’m not so sure that they’ve put in their due diligence to determine that their statement is indeed factual, considering this story just broke on Monday and somehow both companies have concluded their investigations on this matter already. But, I’ll leave that up to the professionals to make the final determination, which leads us into this.
On Tuesday, New York’s attorney general sent letters to both DraftKings and Fanduel demanding that they provide information in regards to each companies “self-investigations” into the matter. Among information requested by the AG’s office, was the following: names, job titles and descriptions of their employees who are responsible for compiling data and creating the algorithms for the games. The AG needs to know specifically about internal policies that each company has in regards to prohibiting their employees from playing DFS games. This is a great start by the attorney general’s office because this story is rocking the daily fantasy sports world to its core with so many unanswered questions.
In another huge development, DraftKings pulled its advertising from ESPN on Tuesday, while ESPN made its own decision to pull back on DraftKings sponsorship graphics as well as language it’s using within their programming. Kudos to ESPN for not altogether ignoring this scandal (though I’m sure it’s purely for selfish reasons). ESPN and some of their analysts have been pimping DraftKings out like no other, but their ability to recognize the severity of this scandal is huge and it sends a message to all other companies with DraftKings or FanDuel sponsorships that it would be wise to follow suit. Additionally, ESPN is running a special on this scandal on Outside the Lines. Bob Ley mentions during the show that while ESPN is cutting DraftKings elements from within its programming, it’s not cutting commercials from DraftKings itself.
What ESPN should do is place their partnership with DraftKings on hold until this matter dies down or until it’s resolved resolved. They can’t half-ass it, nor should any other company that has a sponsorship with either DraftKings or FanDuel.
This is a fluid situation and there will be daily movement on this story, so you’ll want to pay close attention to it. Especially, if you play DFS at either site. Keep following us for more updates as they become available.