DraftKings employees reportedly won nearly $6 million playing daily fantasy sports at rival FanDuel
Stephan Savoia/AP
The scandal broke when The New York Times reported that one DraftKings employee had admitted to "inadvertently releasing data before the start of the third week of N.F.L. games." That employee won $350,000 at FanDuel the same week.
DraftKings later issued a statement saying that it had conducted a "thorough investigation" and found that "this employee could not have used the information in question to make decisions about his FanDuel lineup."
This still has left doubts in the minds of many as to what the employees know and when they know it. But one thing is clear: Whether they have insider information or not, DraftKings employees have been successful playing daily fantasy sports at FanDuel.
On ESPN's "Outside the Lines," Darren Rovell reported that a FanDuel representative had provided data on how much money DraftKings employees had won at FanDuel.
"Their data shows that Draft Kings employees have won 0.3% of the money" won at the site, Rovell said. "FanDuel has given out in prizes, close to $2 billion, according to my calculations."
If DraftKings employees have indeed won 0.3% of nearly $2 billion, that would be close to $6 million won. Rovell put the number at "less than $10 million."
What is not known is if that is net winnings - accounting for losses also - or just the gross winnings.
That is a big difference, but it also would seem that either number is significant.
According to research by Sports Business Daily, over one 3-month stretch, 91% of the player profits at DraftKings and FanDuel were won by just 1.3% of the players.
There are still plenty of unknowns in the daily fantasy sports industry and that is the biggest problem. More transparency is needed and without regulation, it is not clear when that will arrive.
We have reached out to DraftKings and FanDuel for comment.
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