Scandal Erupts in Unregulated World of Fantasy Sports

[seminole97]

Thread title taken from the NYT's article I just read.

Can someone clarify for me (who hasn't played fantasy football) what the issue here is?

...an employee at DraftKings, one of the two major companies, admitted last week to inadvertently releasing data before the start of the third week of N.F.L. games. The employee, a midlevel content manager, won $350,000 at a rival site, FanDuel, that same week.

“It is absolutely akin to insider trading,” said Daniel Wallach, a sports and gambling lawyer at Becker & Poliakoff in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “It gives that person a distinct edge in a contest.”

...

The data that DraftKings acknowledged was released by its employee, Ethan Haskell, showed which 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 in making tactical decisions, especially when an entrant’s opponents do not have the information at all.

Since the performances themselves are still yet to occur, how is this information used to a player's advantage?

 

[Mugsy101]

From what I heard, he had submitted his entry prior to 1pm sunday deadline on the competitor site, and their electronic records indicate he did not have access to the information which was subsequently leaked in error until 1:40 or so. From what I heard, this is 100% undisputed, so the idea of insider trading is just over the top stuff from somebody who probably either wants to sue or wants to eliminate competition for dollars.

 

[seminole97]

But I'm trying to understand how knowing, for example that Aaron Rogers is the most picked QB, really matters before you select your own lineup.
Is it that he's taking the 'wisdom of the crowd' and building a lineup that takes all the top selected players (I'm not even sure if that's possible, I've literally never looked into how the salary cap, etc. in fantasy works)?
Setting aside whether he had the info in advance or not, how does the info allegedly aid him?

 

[SeaPA]

I've never gotten into it, but from what I remember of a guy hitting some big jackpot online last year I think it would be the opposite - he maybe used the info of what players were most commonly picked to put together a team, or teams, of players who were not commonly chosen - premise being that if there's X in the pot and you are one of 10,000 winners you don't win much, but if you're the only winner (or one of 10 winners) the payoff is substantial.

 

[PoopandBoogers]

I've never gotten into it, but from what I remember of a guy hitting some big jackpot online last year I think it would be the opposite - he maybe used the info of what players were most commonly picked to put together a team, or teams, of players who were not commonly chosen - premise being that if there's X in the pot and you are one of 10,000 winners you don't win much, but if you're the only winner (or one of 10 winners) the payoff is substantial.

I think this is what i was told also. If you knew what players were picked, then you pick other players to gain an advantage.
For instance if 99% of the field chose Julio Jones and he scored 3 pts, then it's a wash between all of the 99% that picked him. So if I knew ahead of time that 99% had JJ, and I picked up Vincent Jackson, who was only owned by 7% and he scored 21 pts, then that is a huge advantage.

Coupled with that info and a large bankroll, where you could throw out a large number of tickets, that is a huge, huge advantage and something Vegas or any sharp would love to have!

 

[CC0492]

Was just a matter of time. If it sounds too good to be true......

 

[mnole03]

I think this is what i was told also. If you knew what players were picked, then you pick other players to gain an advantage.
For instance if 99% of the field chose Julio Jones and he scored 3 pts, then it's a wash between all of the 99% that picked him. So if I knew ahead of time that 99% had JJ, and I picked up Vincent Jackson, who was only owned by 7% and he scored 21 pts, then that is a huge advantage.

Coupled with that info and a large bankroll, where you could throw out a large number of tickets, that is a huge, huge advantage and something Vegas or any sharp would love to have!

This is how it works. You create an algorithm that produces unique or relatively unique lineups at the set salary cap. You play hundreds of these lineups. You aren't guaranteed to beat the most popular lineups, but if you do, the benefit it provides is significant. It's like playing BINGO with a hundred people, and 90 of them have the same card.

 

[ohio#1nolefan]

Ehhh....using the Julio Jones and V. Jackson scenario that's still a big risk to choose Jackson over Jones. Everyone that plays already knows far more people will take Jones over Jackson so what's the big deal? There are hundreds of websites dedicated to fantasy matchups to give you "probable" stars for the week.
Week 4 Fan Duel perfect lineup'
QB- Rivers 3%
RB- Freeman 13.66%
RB- Hill 0.88%
WR-Austin 0.17%
WR- Jackson 0.6%
WR-Hurns 1.58%
TE-Bennett 15.84%
K-Santos 1.26%
D- Lions 0.11%

The percentage is the amount of people that chose said player.
I'd be curious as to how much money the guy that won $350k dumped into it. As I stated in another thread, one of the contests I entered, someone had 100 identical teams entered and that person came out $2k ahead.

 

[ohio#1nolefan]

I'd be more concerned about bots winning more so than someone using analytics.

 

[DanC78]

Ehhh....using the Julio Jones and V. Jackson scenario that's still a big risk to choose Jackson over Jones. Everyone that plays already knows far more people will take Jones over Jackson so what's the big deal? There are hundreds of websites dedicated to fantasy matchups to give you "probable" stars for the week.
Week 4 Fan Duel perfect lineup'
QB- Rivers 3%
RB- Freeman 13.66%
RB- Hill 0.88%
WR-Austin 0.17%
WR- Jackson 0.6%
WR-Hurns 1.58%
TE-Bennett 15.84%
K-Santos 1.26%
D- Lions 0.11%

The percentage is the amount of people that chose said player.
I'd be curious as to how much money the guy that won $350k dumped into it. As I stated in another thread, one of the contests I entered, someone had 100 identical teams entered and that person came out $2k ahead.

100 indentical teams?? How does that work?

I ask because I joined Draft Kings last week. I've only played one game that cost $5, but I have money in the bank to spend.

Another friend of mine said companies/people buy multiple teams using an algorithm of some sort...basically said its fixed, or close too.

 

[jeffy]

Sounds like just another excuse for the government to get their mitts on something else.

 

[ohio#1nolefan]

100 indentical teams?? How does that work?

I ask because I joined Draft Kings last week. I've only played one game that cost $5, but I have money in the bank to spend.

Another friend of mine said companies/people buy multiple teams using an algorithm of some sort...basically said its fixed, or close too.

Fan Duel has some contests that allow unlimited entries. I happened to enter one(not knowing the unlimited entry rule) and I happened to look at the standings just to see how close I was to the next prize level. After noticing an entire page(10 entries) of the same user id I began scrolling pages and clicking on his teams entered. 10 pages of the same user id and identical teams. Each entry was $5=$500 cost and each team won $25 x 100= $2500- $500 entry= $2000 profit.
To me that is a huge risk but if you are a professional 'gambler' it probably isn't that big of a deal. Having the same identical team x 100 seems fishy. Maybe he was one of the people that play hundreds if not thousands of teams? Someone posted a link a while ago about a story written by some website stating 90% of the winners are the same 10% of the players playing fantasy sports.

 

[seminole97]

Sounds like just another excuse for the government to get their mitts on something else.

At a minimum we'll see these companies increase their campaign donations, but I don't want this thread derailed on that aspect. I was more interested in the mechanics underlying the alleged fraud.

 

[coloradonoles]

This is akin to knowing all the lottery numbers combinations being played and picking a unique one in hopes of winning and not having to split the pot with anyone else...

You still have to win... much ado about nothing, If you ask me.

 

[seminoledq]

Be great to hear from our resident professional gambler on this rather than the rest of us degenerate gamblers. samnnoles, you out there?.

 

[dmm5157]

Be great to hear from our resident professional gambler on this rather than the rest of us degenerate gamblers. samnnoles, you out there?.

I hit him up on Twitter, we'll see what he has to say about all this.

 

[RTM58]

So.. does this mean the FanDuel and Draft King's ads go away because that would be great.

 

[ZZ828]

It's possible they spent all their ad budgets the first weeks of the season. This past weekend I did not see nearly as many ads during college games than I saw the first month of the season.

 

[fsunole64]

I have played pretty heavy volume on both draftkings and fanduel. Knowing the percent owned ahead of time from a fanduel NFL contest has not much benefit. If you play the Thursday-Sunday slate on fanduel you will see why your players are owned for that slate on Thursday. So if i have aaron Rodgers and he's 30% owned he's going to be roughly the same on the Sunday only slate. There are multiple websites that post what percent players are owned in the Thursday-Sunday contest.

The biggest concern I have is who has access to the data and can they see individual lineups. If an employee can see individual lineups he can see who the sharpest and best players are playing and that would be a huge advantage. If I knew maxdulary for example used Randel Cobb in all 500 of his lineups like he did 2 weeks ago when Cobb went off. It would probably make sense to use Cobb in a lot of mine.

The sites have finally woke up some in the past days and have banned there employees from playing on any site so that is a positive step. I'm sure some government regulation is coming also.

 

[given2fly]

I have played pretty heavy volume on both draftkings and fanduel. Knowing the percent owned ahead of time from a fanduel NFL contest has not much benefit. If you play the Thursday-Sunday slate on fanduel you will see why your players are owned for that slate on Thursday. So if i have aaron Rodgers and he's 30% owned he's going to be roughly the same on the Sunday only slate. There are multiple websites that post what percent players are owned in the Thursday-Sunday contest.

The biggest concern I have is who has access to the data and can they see individual lineups. If an employee can see individual lineups he can see who the sharpest and best players are playing and that would be a huge advantage. If I knew maxdulary for example used Randel Cobb in all 500 of his lineups like he did 2 weeks ago when Cobb went off. It would probably make sense to use Cobb in a lot of mine.

The sites have finally woke up some in the past days and have banned there employees from playing on any site so that is a positive step. I'm sure some government regulation is coming also.

That was my thought as well. Simply knowing the percentages isn't a huge advantage, but knowing individual lineups would be a game changer.