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Fantasy Sports Employees Bet at Rival Sites Using Inside Information

nytimes.com

1–10 of 111 posts

Re: Fantasy Sports Employees Bet at Rival Sites Using Inside Information

#2
I can't imagine these companies will be allowed to exist in the wild west for much longer. They are either going to need some strong regulations or they are going to be killed politically. It makes me wonder if the media rush they both started at the beginning of this football season was a preemptive move of desperation to cash in as much as possible before the hammer came down.

Re: Fantasy Sports Employees Bet at Rival Sites Using Inside Information

#3
As someone who worked in the Internet gambling industry and has to sit and see these Daily Fantasy Sports idiots run their loophole into the ground, I can only laugh. You can't flout your "legality" in front of a bunch of US Senators, advertise fraudulent returns, and have zero regulations and expect to get away with it.

Re: Fantasy Sports Employees Bet at Rival Sites Using Inside Information

#4
someone please explain like i'm five - according to the wikipedia page, fantasy football scoring is based on the actual performance of the athletes you pick in an actual game. therefore, if the games themselves are not fixed, there should be no possibility of "insider information" - what information could the companies running the pool have that the general public do not? the article didn't make it any clearer.

Re: Fantasy Sports Employees Bet at Rival Sites Using Inside Information

#5
post #4

someone please explain like i'm five - according to the wikipedia page, fantasy football scoring is based on the actual performance of the athletes you pick in an actual game. therefore, if the games themselves are not fixed, there should be no possibility of "insider information" - what information could the companies running the pool have that the general public do not? the article didn't make it any clearer.

From the article:

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.

Re: Fantasy Sports Employees Bet at Rival Sites Using Inside Information

#6
post #2

I can't imagine these companies will be allowed to exist in the wild west for much longer. They are either going to need some strong regulations or they are going to be killed politically. It makes me wonder if the media rush they both started at the beginning of this football season was a preemptive move of desperation to cash in as much as possible before the hammer came down.

Why? Are they cheating their customers?

Re: Fantasy Sports Employees Bet at Rival Sites Using Inside Information

#7
post #6
post #2

I can't imagine these companies will be allowed to exist in the wild west for much longer. They are either going to need some strong regulations or they are going to be killed politically. It makes me wonder if the media rush they both started at the beginning of this football season was a preemptive move of desperation to cash in as much as possible before the hammer came down.

Why? Are they cheating their customers?

In this case, one of their employees did exactly that.

Re: Fantasy Sports Employees Bet at Rival Sites Using Inside Information

#8
post #5
post #4

someone please explain like i'm five - according to the wikipedia page, fantasy football scoring is based on the actual performance of the athletes you pick in an actual game. therefore, if the games themselves are not fixed, there should be no possibility of "insider information" - what information could the companies running the pool have that the general public do not? the article didn't make it any clearer.

From the article: 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…

Even with that, you'd still have to be good enough to pick the best roster. I don't think it's as useful as the article makes it sound.

Re: Fantasy Sports Employees Bet at Rival Sites Using Inside Information

#9
post #5
post #4

someone please explain like i'm five - according to the wikipedia page, fantasy football scoring is based on the actual performance of the athletes you pick in an actual game. therefore, if the games themselves are not fixed, there should be no possibility of "insider information" - what information could the companies running the pool have that the general public do not? the article didn't make it any clearer.

From the article: 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…

so it's basically using the "wisdom of the crowds" that play on the DraftKings site to put together a really good pick? that still seems like it shouldn't count as equivalent to insider information, because it's aggregating a bunch of guesses that have no information either.

Re: Fantasy Sports Employees Bet at Rival Sites Using Inside Information

#10
post #4

someone please explain like i'm five - according to the wikipedia page, fantasy football scoring is based on the actual performance of the athletes you pick in an actual game. therefore, if the games themselves are not fixed, there should be no possibility of "insider information" - what information could the companies running the pool have that the general public do not? the article didn't make it any clearer.

"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. A spokeswoman for DraftKings said Haskell simply made a mistake and that the company was certain that he did not use the information improperly. She declined to go into specifics about the safeguards or the company’s auditing policies."

I'm guessing that Haskell assumed that if 60% of people on DraftKings were going to pick [Fantasy Player X], then about 60% of people on FanDuel would pick [Fantasy Player X], and knowing so ahead of time informs the odds on each bet?

This reminds me of the Capital One/Chipotle incident (http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-01-23/capital-one...).

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