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Insider trading scandal involving DraftKings and FanDuel

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Kifimbo

Member
Not that surprising, but this will probably have big consequences.

A major scandal is erupting in the multibillion dollar industry of fantasy sports, the online and unregulated business in which players assemble their fantasy teams with real athletes. On Monday, the two major fantasy companies were forced to release statements defending their businesses’ integrity after what amounted to allegations of insider trading, that employees were placing bets on information not available to the public.

Last week, a DraftKings employee admitted to inadvertently releasing data before the start of the third week of N.F.L. games, a move akin to insider trading in the stock market. The employee – a midlevel content manager — won $350,000 at rival site FanDuel that same week.

[...]

Jerry Jones of the Cowboys and Robert K. Kraft of the New England Patriots have stakes in DraftKings and the company recently struck a three-year deal with the N.F.L. to become a partner of the American football league’s International Series in Great Britain, where sports betting is legal. In addition, DraftKings has tapped hundreds of millions from Fox Sports, and FanDuel has raised hundreds of millions of dollars from investors like Comcast, NBC and KKR.

More info here: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/sports/fanduel-draftkings-fantasy-employees-bet-rivals.html
 

DarkKyo

Member
Aren't bets on those sites placed using unknown data from future sports games? How can you trade inside info if the future is unknown to all? I guess I just don't really get how the whole thing works.
 

cdyhybrid

Member
Aren't bets on those sites placed using unknown data from future sports games? How can you trade inside info if the future is unknown to all? I guess I just don't really get how the whole thing works.

They have access to data that shows them who is getting drafted the most, etc.
 

Captain.Falafel

Neo Member
Both seem sketchy as hell, legally ambiguous, and have the most intrusive & insufferable ad-campaign of all time.

I'll be chuffed when they're no longer on the map.
 

Griss

Member
Aren't bets on those sites placed using unknown data from future sports games? How can you trade inside info if the future is unknown to all? I guess I just don't really get how the whole thing works.

Because unlike normal fantasy, everyone can pick the same players if they want. It's like british fantasy soccer.

Since that's the case, if you have the data on who everyone is picking, you have a huge advantage by not picking those players and getting better value on underrated players for that week. Normal people don't get access to the 'percentage played' data until the lineups are set. Employees obviously get it before.

It absolutely is an equivalent to insider trading.

Whole thing needs to be regulated immediately. All ads should be pulled while this is investigated.
 

zychi

Banned
Aren't bets on those sites placed using unknown data from future sports games? How can you trade inside info if the future is unknown to all? I guess I just don't really get how the whole thing works.
Imagine you work for the cia but make your money working for mi-6 secretly.
 

KHarvey16

Member
I was puzzled by what "insider info" meant but roster stats would definitely be useful information when creating your team, and having that early is a huge advantage.
 

Hard J

Banned
This shit needs to end. You can't watch five minutes of an NFL game without seeing a FanDuel or DraftKings advertisement.
 

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
I'm curious what data he had access to that allowed him to make a profit off it. I figured Draft Kings went off sports reports like other fantasy sites. What inside info could he have had access to.
 

Cels

Member
The data that DraftKings acknowledged was released by its employee, Ethan Haskell, showed what particular players were most used in all lineups submitted to the site’s Millionaire Maker contests. Usually, that data is not released until the lineups for all games are finalized. Getting it early, however, is of great advantage to make tactical decisions, especially when your opponents do not have the information at all.

in case you were interested in what kind of data the employee used
 

KHarvey16

Member
I'm curious what data he had access to that allowed him to make a profit off it. I figured Draft Kings went off sports reports like other fantasy sites. What inside info could he have had access to.

Employees can see how often players are drafted. Since everyone can select the same players when competing against each other, it benefits you to choose other players. In the case where a player a lot of people drafted does well, many entries benefit. If you know who wasn't chosen often and they have a really good game, that puts you ahead.
 
Excuse me?

sabu.png


Whoops, gotta proof read better lmao.
 
I got a $1.98 left on Fanduel. I'm done after its gone. I keep seeing stories about computer generated entries being made by the sites to fill leagues, and other dudes writing programs to enter and alter thousands of entries automatically.
 

Chichikov

Member
Jerry Jones of the Cowboys and Robert K. Kraft of the New England Patriots have stakes in DraftKings
One day Robert Kraft will have a stake in a non cheating organization.
But not today.
 
Hmmm will wait and see how this proceeds. I don't play on these sites or fantasy football in general so I'm kinda glad I'm not involved at the moment.
 
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