Fantasy Sports Leaders DraftKings & Fan Duel Involved In Inside Information Scandal

If you’ve watched TV over the last month, there’s no doubt that you have seen the endless fantasy football commercials for FanDuel and DraftKings.

Currently there is a controversy brewing regarding the access to inside information, that even has some in Congress calling for tougher controls of the cash cow fantasy business.

The scandal surrounds a DraftKings employee who won $350,000 at FanDuel. DraftKings says the employee who won the money used his own skill, and had no access to any inside information until after all FanDuel lineups were locked.

FanDuel and DraftKings have both temporarily banned employees from playing daily fantasy. Each released a statement insisting the integrity of their games is in tact.

“While there has been recent attention on industry employees playing on FanDuel and DraftKings, nothing is more important to DraftKings and FanDuel than the integrity of the games we offer to our customers,” the statement says. “Both companies 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. Employees with access to this data are rigorously monitored by internal fraud control teams, and we have no evidence that anyone has misused it. However, we continue to review our internal controls to ensure they are as strong as they can be. We also plan to work with the entire fantasy sports industry on this specific issue so that fans everywhere can continue to enjoy and trust the games they love.”

Members of Congress have called for hearings on daily fantasy games, and are questioning how daily fantasy differs from gambling.