Daily fantasy employees accused of misusing insider information

Employees from the popular daily fantasy sports sites DraftKings and FanDuel are accused to using insider information to win large jackpots on their rivals’ sites.

Employees from the popular daily fantasy sports sites DraftKings and FanDuel are accused to using insider information to win large jackpots on their rivals’ sites, according to The New York Times.

Before Week 3 of the NFL season, a DraftKings employee named Ethan Haskell leaked information about the players most frequently used in fantasy lineups on the site. Haskell admitted to leaking the data, according to the Times.

The data Haskell released is made public by the site after lineups have been finalized but can give players an advantage if obtained ahead of time. Haskell won $350,000 playing on FanDuel that week, according to the Times. DraftKings employees are allowed to bet on rival daily fantasy sites, according to Forbes.

The companies released a joint statement Monday saying that they “have strong policies in place to ensure that employees do not misuse any information at their disposal and strictly limit access to company data to only those employees who require it to do their jobs.”

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“Employees with access to this data are rigorously monitored by internal fraud control teams, and we have no evidence that anyone has misused it,” the companies added.

Though Haskell won over a quarter-million dollars the same week he leaked the data, the companies said “we have no evidence that anyone has misused [the data].”

FanDuel and DraftKings have blanketed airwaves with advertisements this NFL season, leading a New Jersey congressman to call for a hearing on Capitol Hill to examine the legality of the sites.

- Dan Gartland