Draftking Case Study

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John wakes early on Sunday morning. There is much work to be done. He needs to check the status of Kendall Wright’s knee sprain before Tennessee's 1:00 start against New Orleans, and the health of Odell Beckham Jr, who he expects to decimate Tampa Bay’s secondary. John needs to check the weather forecast in Green Bay, where snow and low temperatures could give Cam Newton troubles throwing the football. He carefully chooses each player in his lineup, weighing the auction cost of each player and their projected matchup. Finally, with a lineup that includes Philip Rivers, Devonta Freeman, DeAndre Hopkins, Kendall Wright, Demaryius Thomas, and Martellus Bennett, John is satisfied; he grabs a cup of coffee and makes his way to his armchair for …show more content…

John Culhane reports that DraftKings employee Ethan Haskell has taken unfair advantage of the information he receives as an employee. As an employee of DraftKings, Haskell is justly forbidden from participating in DraftKings fantasy contests. However, there is nothing stopping him from entering contests in FanDuel, which functions under a system very similar to DraftKings. On September 27th, Haskell revealed that he had insider information, and that he was the “only one with this data.” With this data, Haskell outscored over 220,000 people in a contest that week and brought home $350,000. Culhane reports that many at DraftKings make more money on FanDuel contests than from their own salary. This is absolute corruption. Hundreds of thousands of people are losing their money to people who should not be allowed to participate in the contests. This calls for more regulation and the banning of employees from playing in their competitor’s contests. Many believe that those who work for one of the companies do not have an unfair unadvantage. Rather, they are just very knowledgeable in fantasy football and, after working with the game constantly, know the smartest way to play the game. This logic, however, is wrong. The evidence of Haskell beating out over 220,000 participants cannot be a coincidence. The corruption of FanDuel and DraftKings employees using insider information is one reason why daily fantasy sports need to be regulated; regulation will secure safety and fairness for all

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