For those that don't know over the past couple days a story of Ethan Haskell (employee of DraftKings) won $350,000 on FanDuel. Ethan works for DraftKings Playbook, which is the online blog for DraftKings. He's a writer and one of his posts is displaying the ownership % levels for the Millionaire Maker. You can an example of the post here - http://playbook.draftkings.com/nfl/millionaire-maker-percent-owned-week-3/
This week, he posted ownership % levels that included players who hadn't played yet. After the Sunday 1pm games, he posted ownership level %'s for players in the Sunday and Monday Night games. A user pointed this out and Ethan apologized and said it was an innocent mistake and it wouldn't happen again. However, the story didn't die there.
Legal Sports Report ran a number of stories on it and started promoting this on Twitter. Big media caught on and now a number of larger sites have been calling this a scandal. These sites include ESPN, Deadspin, USA Today, New York Times and more.
So, why is this being considered a scandal? Any FanDuel user can play in Thursday FanDuel games and see ownership levels for Sunday players on FanDuel. This information is actual ownership % levels on FanDuel, not DraftKings. Why is Ethan Haskell or any DraftKings employee knowing DraftKings ownership level % more valuable than actual FanDuel ownership %?
Facts:
- Up until now, employees of DFS sites are able to play on competitor sites. They are not allowed to play on the site they work for.
- Ethan posted ownership % for games that had started and for games that hadn't started to DraftKings Playbook. He posted ownership %'s for Sunday and Monday Night games on DraftKings prior to these games starting.
- Ethan has won significant money in DFS prior to working at DraftKings. He's an accomplished player.
- On DraftKings you can make "late swaps", meaning you can swap out players prior to games being started.
- On FanDuel, you can not make "late swaps"
- DraftKings and FanDuel don't have the same ownership % in their contests.
- DraftKings released a statement saying that Ethan Haskell did not publish ownership levels at DraftKings prior to the FanDuel contest starting.
- DFS site have currently banned their employees from playing on any DFS sites.
Important Questions:
- What happens next? Does this lead to regulation?
- Should DFS employees be allowed to play on any DFS site?
- Why did Ethan Haskell have access to DraftKings Ownership level %'s prior to the Sunday Night and Monday games starting and if so, is this a competitive advantage?
- How is this different than knowing Ownership level % on Thursday's on FanDuel? Any player can go on FanDuel on Thursdays and see ownership level % on FanDuel and utilize this information for Sunday's games. DFS websites regularly publish this information.
- Did Ethan have the onwership level % from DraftKings prior to entering his FanDuel contest?
- Is this ownership level % being shared with any others?
- Is this the tip of the iceberg or speculation? No reports have come out that Ethan had any information prior to the games starting and no reports have come out stating that DFS employees have an unfair advantage. It could, but in this case, it's all speculation.
Personally, I think some regulation in DFS will help the industry establish legitimacy and ensure fairness. I'm not sure that DFS employees/contractors have an unfair advantage yet other than many of them living DFS all day, every day. The DraftKings Pros are an example of this. They are really good at DFS and have been some of the forerunners in the industry. They are also under the umbrella of DraftKings in some way. As long as they aren't getting private information, I don't see why they shouldn't be able to play on other DFS sites.
I will wait for the 3rd party reports to make a broader conclusion about this particular situation. However, I do think a rule that ensures DFS site employees that play DFS don't have access to ownership level reports. I think this is easy enough to implement and prevents this issue from arising.
People are running with this speculation and condemning all of DFS before having the facts. It's premature to come to any conclusions. However, I do think this is a good time for this discussion. I hope we can come up with a solution that keeps DFS going strong and ensure fairness.
What are your thoughts?
