Rival Fantasy Sports Respond to Accusations of ‘Insider Betting’

Two major fantasy sports companies published statements Monday to combat allegations that employees had used insider information to win money on their sites.

Fantasy sports is a largely unregulated industry in which fans populate their fictional team with real athletes, then bet on the outcomes using the athlete’s performance in real life. Last week, an employee at DraftKings admitted to winning $350,000 at rival site FanDuel the same week he inadvertently disclosed DraftKings data before the start of the third week of football games, the New York Times reports. The offense is analogous to insider trading.

The companies released a joint statement emphasizing the “integrity” of the service they offer their customers. “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,” the statement reads. “Employees with access to this data are rigorously monitored by internal fraud control teams, and we have no evidence that anyone has misused it.”

Although similar to gambling, fantasy sports sites are exempt from a 2006 federal law that outlawed online poker and other online games in many states, thanks to the argument that fantasy sports is a game of skill, not chance.

[NYT]